4 Doors
by The Throne
Summary: One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, one door will have you fighting for the simplest things. One door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't, one door will find you back in your home. Young twelve, be smart with the door that you choose. You may find, in the end, that their looks betray you.
1. Prologue

**Hiiiii some of you may know me from my stories House of the Jackal and House of Couples. And now I have another one which will likely be my last, at least for a while. Except I'm doing things a little different. I'm going to upload the entire story in one swoop. All of the chapters are available.**

 **You don't have to review for a new chapter because it's already up. You don't have to wonder when the next update is because it's fully updated. You don't have to wonder what's going to happen next because it's already finished.**

 **I'll** _ **ap**_ _ **preciate**_ **reviews of course but I'm not going to ask for them, and don't feel obligated to give them. The reason I'm uploading this story is because I've been working on it so long, I just felt like it deserves to be read. It's darker than some of my other stories, I hope none of you mind that. It's one of my favorites.**

 **The ending is a little short and cut off, but that's intentional. Also, I planned for the story to go for six more chapters, and I know I'll never get to writing those. If the end is weird and you have any questions, feel free to PM me or leave a review or whatever. I'll try to answer.**

 **Just so you know I have a deviantart for this story. Username: Throne1738**

 **If you do review, I'd be interested in knowing what 'door' you find most interesting, and what door you would choose if you were in their situation. Thank you very much!**

 **There will only be two Author notes this entire story. This one and one in the end. That's it, I hope those of you who read this enjoy it!**

* * *

 ***Note*** this takes place somewhere during season 3 (but a season 3 with no mystery) as if Mick stayed Nina came back, Amber never left, and Willow was able to move in along with KT. Therefore the couples are Peddie, Fabina, Amfie. Jerome and Mara broke up, he's growing closer to Joy.

* * *

 **Part I: The Four Doors**

 **Prologue**

"I can't see anything, is everyone here?" Nina's words cut through the darkness. Everyone answered and she sighed out a relief. Everything had been normal before. They ate, did their homework, and went to sleep after Victor did his pen drop thing. When they woke up, they were in an empty room with no light and apparently no heat. Boy Nina was sick of crazy things happening to her.

Then, light.

Not a lot of light, just enough to show the four doors in front of them, and the outlines of their friends. The doors were all completely different. The first door was dark wood and carved precisely. The second was a large steel door. The third was wood, and it looked like it could be falling apart. The last was very familiar to them. It was the Anubis House door.

A slow, eerie voice spoke up, it sounded like it came from all around.

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams,

One door will have you fighting for the simplest things,

One door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't,

One door will find you back in your home,

Young twelve, be smart with the door that you choose,

You could find, in the end, that their looks betray you."

"One of the doors leads us back home," Jerome said. "It has to be the last one!"

"No, that's the obvious one. Didn't you hear?" Patricia said. "Their looks betray you."

"Or they're just trying to scare us into believing it's one of the other ones, when it's the obvious one!" Joy exclaimed.

Nina bit her lip. "We don't have to all go into the same door. We'll all go into each of the doors, and the ones who find home will come back and find the others."

No one said anything for a minute, the idea of splitting up not a well liked one, until Fabian, staring at the second door, said, "Does that door seem familiar to anyone else?"

Everyone looked at the second door, the big steel door. "Yeah," Amber said.

No one else seemed to remember it. Finally they agreed to split up. The original groups were Eddie with Patricia and Mara, Jerome with Joy, and KT, Nina with Fabian, and Mick, and Amber with Alfie and Willow. However, this didn't go well as mostly everyone in the groups wanted to go in a different door. The end groups were Willow, Mara and Eddie for the first door, Fabian, Amber, and Patricia for the second door, Nina, KT, and Mick for the third door, and Jerome, Joy, and Alfie for the last door.

"I like this door," Willow said looking at the nice wooden door in front of her. "It gives off good vibes."

"Fabian that door does _not_ lead home." Mara said.

"It's from home, I remember it!" Fabian insisted. Amber agreed, she'd like to go with the familiar door. Patricia just hoped they were right.

Nina also hoped she was right. The old door in front of her was falling apart, and she wouldn't trust it in the slightest, and that's why she trusted it. It'd be a complete twist for the old door to be the right door.

Finally, they all wished each other luck and opened their doors. They hoped to get a peak of whatever world they were stepping into, but only blank whiteness was in front of them.

 _Which door would you choose?_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **Door 2**

Fabian looked around. He wasn't home, and yet it all seemed incredibly familiar. Amber figured it out. "Fabian you were right! This is the door of that big abandoned warehouse barn place Rufus trapped us in last year! Remember, Alfie knocked it down and Trudy fell? We're home! Well not _home_ but home!"

"Wait..." Patricia looked at the door standing upright. "Alfie knocked the door down?"

"Yeah..." Fabian said looking at the door. "We'll go back to the house, see how everything is, and if it's all okay, we'll come back here and grab the others."

"Good plan." Patricia said. They ran the way back home, hoping everything was the way it was supposed to be. Twenty minutes passed before they got there. The sun was just beginning to rise. They had to avoid the alarm and waking up Trudy and Victor. The house looked normal, the day seemed normal, right down to the blades of grass that were a healthy mix of green and brown. Patricia walked ahead and opened the door. Everything was exactly how they left it. Even their beds looked slept in when they looked in their rooms.

"This was definitely the right door." Patricia said. "We have to go back and get the others. What did the voice say when they showed the doors?"

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams," Amber recited in an eerily similar voice to the original speaker. "One door will have you fighting for the simplest things, one door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't, one door will find you back in your home. Some of those things sound bad."

"So we should hurry." Fabian said. "It's already been over thirty minutes since we came through the doors."

The three sprinted all the way back to the metal doors. For a heart stopping moment, they wouldn't budge. But after a few minutes of pulling, they finally opened. "What's the plan?" Patricia asked.

"We'll split up so that it's faster." Fabian said. "We'll each go in one of the doors. How do you want to decide-"

"Alfie went in this door right?" Amber pointed to the Anubis replica. Fabian chuckled, and it was decided. Patricia would go into the first door where Eddie, Mara, and Willow went. Fabian would follow Nina, Mick, and KT into the third door. Amber was practically already inside the fourth door where Alfie, Joy, and Jerome went.

"In and out okay?" Fabian said. Patricia nodded. "Good luck." They saluted each other and went on to find their friends.

* * *

 **Door 1**

Patricia was actually surprised when she stepped through the door and saw Anubis House. It wasn't the same, though. Instead of a boarding school house, it looked more like a family home. She thought she may have heard familiar voices, and she followed that sound. It was coming from the other side of the door to where the Anubis dining room would be.

Eddie, Willow, and Mara were all eating breakfast. They looked at her and smiled. They were seated around a smaller table wearing different clothes than she'd last seen them in. Just jeans and tee shirts.

"Hello!" Willow said. "Take a seat!"

Patricia hesitated, remembering Fabian said in and out. For all she knew, he and Amber could already be back with the others. But she wondered if the others were acting as weird as these three were. Slowly, she walked in and took a seat next to Eddie. "Um, I found the way back home. Fabian and Amber did, I mean."

"What do you mean?" Mara asked. "We are home."

Patricia looked around. Yes it was eerily similar, close enough to home that she felt like she already knew her way around, but different enough to make her uncomfortable and give her chills. "Our real home."

They all stared at her for a moment, before taking turns having scones and croissants. "So what's your name?" Eddie asked.

Patricia's head snapped to Eddie's. "Is that a joke?"

"I don't think so." Eddie said as if he were thoroughly confused.

Patricia gaped at him, switching back and forth from panicking and hitting him. If he was joking, she'd hit him and make sure it hurt. But if not...

She looked at Mara. She couldn't see Mara being in on a joke with Eddie especially not one like this. "You don't remember me?"

Eddie stopped what he was doing and eyed her curiously. "Should I?"

Patricia nodded furiously. "Yes!"

"Well I don't, sorry. Could you remind me?" Eddie asked. "My name is Eddie."

"I know your name!" Patricia yelled. "You're Eddie! And you're Mara and you're Willow!"

"Well then we're at a disadvantage, because I haven't the slightest clue who you are." Mara said.

Patricia gaped at them for a moment and took a deep breath. She tried to keep her voice steady but when she saw the blank looks they gave her she snapped. "Patricia!" she exclaimed. She couldn't understand why they couldn't remember her. "My. Name. Is. Patricia."

"Nice to meet you Patricia." Willow smiled politely. But if not remembering who she was wasn't bad enough, another heart stopping thought came to mind.

"Wait, do you remember anything?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course we do." Mara said. Patricia thought she saw out of the corner of her eye Eddie give Mara a curious look but she ignored it, because what Mara and the rest of them remembered was more pressing.

"What's the first thing you remember?" Patricia asked hurriedly.

"Walking in here." Mara said. Patricia's jaw dropped.

"You mean an hour ago?" Patricia asked. All three looked at her with an odd expression, as if she'd grown three more heads like the hydra.

"That was six months ago." Eddie said completely sure of himself. "Are you sure _you_ remember everything?"

For a second she wasn't. Had she somehow missed six months of her life? But she was sure she hadn't. They didn't even know who she was how should she not take everything they say with a grain of salt.

"The three of us walked into this house," Willow explained. "We went exploring a bit, and finally I believe we didn't like it here. Dunno why."

"We tried to leave but the door wouldn't open. We were stuck here." Mara continued.

"You seem like awful happy prisoners." Patricia said.

"This isn't a prison." Eddie corrected her. "It just took some getting used to, but this place is truly amazing. You can do anything."

"Except leave apparently."

"We can leave, we just couldn't that first day." Willow said. "We can go anywhere we want, just not... not..."

"Wherever we came from." Mara supplied.

"We think that's where we wanted to go the first day." Eddie said.

Patricia looked at them for several long moments, before shaking her head. "Well we'll figure out whatever the hell is wrong with you later, right now we're going back." Patricia stood up and the others watched her leave. She tried to open the door but it was stuck. "What the hell?"

"That's what happened with us the first day as well." Mara said quietly when she walked to Patricia. "We can hope that the door starts working again tomorrow. Then we can go wherever we want."

Patricia stood still with a hand on the doorknob. "I'd like to go home."

* * *

 **Door 3**

Nina's deductive reasoning for why she chose the third door seemed smart when she said it to them. It turns out she was wrong. The irony of the broken door being the right door wasn't there. When Fabian walked out of the broken door, he stepped outside. The grass around him was overgrown, and there was no sign of civilization. He walked down the steps into the grass and weeds and turned to look at Anubis House. It was broken and falling apart as if it'd been there for decades.

He began walking, looking for his friends. He stepped into the woods and navigated around the trees. He could hear the animals rustling around for a bit. He didn't know what made him go this way instead of the other way, he was just looking for his friends. After he'd been walking for a while, it took him a moment to realize it was too quiet. The only sound was him walking through the grass. He stopped and listened. No birds, no animals, even the wind seemed to be quiet.

And then,

"GET DOWN!"

The voice startled him so much, he obeyed the command without question and was surprised to hear wind whipping over his head. He looked up, arrows.

It sounded like Nina. He didn't dare come out of his crouching position. Where it had been completely silent a moment ago, it was now full of battle cries. There was shuffling and someone grabbed him and pulled him in some direction.

" _Stay down,_ " the voice, Nina he was sure, said to him as she pulled him somewhere. After a certain point, when the battle was behind him, she took off running and pulling him forward. He watched her. Her hair was long, messy, dirty. She didn't have any shoes on. She had the same jeans that she did before, ripped and beat up, but the shirt was different. It was looser and flowed like loose fabric around her body. She looked skinnier but she also looked stronger. She finally stopped in front of the old warehouse. He followed her inside, and she turned to him.

His heart dropped into his stomach. "Nina..."

There was dirt, blood, and scars covering every part of her body. Blood dripped down the side of her head, on her forehead was a nasty looking bruise. The bridge of her nose was bruised and bloody, and there was a deep scar on her chin.

"What happened?" Fabian asked.

Nina was examining Fabian like he was examining her. She finally looked up at him. "I was caught in a fighting zone like you, but no one was there to tell me to get down."

He continued stared at her, and she seemed to get a little irritated.

"How did you get here?" Nina asked, lighting a torch and putting it safely on the side. He could see the old furs on the ground where she and some others must sleep. Mick and KT he presumed.

"I went through the third door." he told her.

She nodded. "I'm guessing your door was the correct one?"

Fabian nodded.

"And you came here?" she asked. He nodded again. "That was dumb of you."

"I wanted to get you. And Mick and KT, where are they?" Fabian asked. Nina looked down and began to wash the blood on the side of her face with a bit of fabric, similar to what she had on, that she had wet.

"Last I saw them was a week ago." Nina said.

"A week ago?" Fabian asked as the words sunk in. "It's only been like an hour."

Nina looked at him and shook her head. "I suppose time moves faster here than it does back in the other world."

"Well are they okay?" Fabian asked. "Did you separate as soon as you got here?"

"Physically I'm sure they're in a much better shape than I am. Mentally... I can't speak on." Nina said. She put the rag down. She managed to get some of the dirt off, but she didn't even bother to try to get it all off. "It's been a year since we went through the door."

"A- A year?" Fabian's voice cracked. Nina nodded.

"And when we first got here, we were very much together." Nina said. "I'm going to show you something."

She grabbed the torch and lead him to the back. She held the light of the torch near the back wall, where he saw carving. Counting. She told him to hold the torch, and added the final tally of the year. The first ones, up to about 100, were larger and sloppier. You could tell a different person. Then they were neater. The person changed again at 158, and again at 228 where the person's marks were shakier.

"Mick started it after the tenth day. But then he was really upset when we had been here for 100 days, and he quit keeping count. So KT continued. Someone kept doing it while I was away for a few weeks," Nina pointed from 158-228. "Don't know who. I do it now, since Mick and KT aren't here anymore." Nina explained finishing up her carving.

"Where'd they go?" Fabian asked.

Nina stared at wall. "It's been a long year, Fabian."

* * *

 **Door 4**

Amber didn't have time to be surprised by how different Anubis House looked compared to how much it felt like she was walking into her home when she yanked open the familiar looking door. She was too busy being surprised by the sound of yelling and fighting. The french doors that lead to the living room were replaced by less friendly looking ones. She opened them and was met by some sort of training center.

Joy and Alfie were fighting. They didn't even notice Amber. Alfie blocked every one of Joy's kicks, while she blocked all of his punches. Then the partners switched, and Jerome took Alfie's place. The difference in height didn't seem to throw Joy off in the slightest, as she ducked under one of his throws and then swung at his head with her foot. He caught it, but she managed to do some kind of spin and hit him with her other leg to kick him in the head. They both fell but she landed on her feet, and he landed on his side.

Jerome hopped up, but the partners switched again and Alfie was in Joy's place. Their fight seemed to be the most brutal. Jerome punched Alfie, and then pinned him to the wall with his hands around Alfie's throat.

"FIGHT BACK!" Joy yelled. Alfie stared at Jerome, but he didn't move to shove him off.

"Fight back." Jerome said. Alfie gave a slight shake of his head. Joy sighed.

"Finish it." Joy said. Jerome nodded and Amber watched in horror as Jerome squeezed hard, until Alfie fell lifeless on the ground.

Amber gasped and Jerome and Joy looked over at her surprised.

"Amber?" Jerome asked.

"Is he- is he-" Amber sputtered.

Jerome shook his head as Joy said, "You don't understand,"

Amber backed away from them until she hit a wall and slid down it. "I saw it all! I saw it all you, you-"

"Amber?" came Alfie's surprised voice. Her head snapped up as the boy, crumbled on the floor, slowly stood up, cracked his neck, and began to walk over to her.

She stared at him, and then at all of them.

"What is happening?" She said in a very timid voice. They all looked at each other.

"Amber when we first came here, we realized right away we weren't in the right place. We tried to leave, go back and try one of the other doors, but it wouldn't open." Jerome explained.

"We hoped whoever found the right door would come find us." Joy said. "We lost hope after a while."

"That's why I'm here!" Amber said. "Why would you lose hope?"

Alfie shrugged. "We kind of figured after five months-"

"Five months!" Amber shot up so quickly the other three backed up a little. "It has not been five months!"

"No..." Jerome said slowly as if Amber could explode. "It's been two years."

Amber shook her head. "No. No. No way."

"Two Years today." Alfie confirmed and held up his imaginary glass as if doing a toast. Jerome copied the movement but Joy watched Amber.

"How long do you think it's been?" Joy asked.

"I don't know! Less than a day that's for sure, like a class period! A little more I guess. more like lunch time."

They stared at her. "You mean it's only been like an hour for you?"

Amber nodded. "Does that mean time moves faster here?"

"I guess so." Joy said.

"Wait! Wait a minute, I just witnessed Alfie _die_ someone tell me what he's doing in front of me talking to me!" Amber yelled. Jerome stepped forward.

"Amber put your hand here." Jerome said moving her hand so it was on his chest in front of the heart. "What do you feel?"

Amber blinked. "Nothing."

"Exactly." Jerome said.

"You have... no heart?" Amber asked horrified.

"We have... something." Alfie said. "Because we bleed."

"We can kill ourselves any way possible, we won't die." Joy said. "I've died every single way, and yet here I am."

Joy frowned and looked at her feet, Amber shook her head again. "H-How?"

"We're not..." Alfie began. "We eat, we sleep, I can feel every prick on my skin and every emotion. But at the end of the day... we're not real. We're not, we're not..."

"We're not human anymore." Joy finished.

"The minute we stepped through the door," Alfie said. "We became something else."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **Door 1**

Patricia watched the people she'd known for years. They were like... aliens. "You guys don't think it's weird that you don't remember anything before this place?"

"It's a bit strange." Mara admitted. "I try not to think on it because I get a headache."

"A headache?" Patricia asked.

"We used to remember the stuff from before, but after about two weeks the memories were gone." Willow said taking a sip of water. "Poof!"

"And whenever we'd try to remember something that had already gone 'poof' we'd get a headache." Eddie said. "Y'know, like the headache you get when you forget something and you're trying to remember it?"

"When did you start forgetting?" Patricia asked.

"As soon as we got here." Willow said. "It wasn't the important stuff, just things like my favorite color, what I got for my birthday."

Patricia didn't have a favorite color, and she hadn't appreciated her birthday gift, but she couldn't for the life of her remember why she started wearing hair streaks two years ago. She knew there was a reason, she just didn't know what it was. This scared her.

"Did you never try to figure out why you were losing your memories?" Patricia asked.

"Well sure! In the beginning." Willow said.

"Yeah Eddie picked the lock to the attic, but before we could go up there we got caught." Mara said.

Patricia smiled. "Interesting. Maybe I'll have to check that out myself."

"No you can't!" Eddie exclaimed. "It's not allowed!"

"Who's running this place anyway?" Patricia scoffed.

"Dunno." Willow said. "But whenever we want to say something to them we leave a note, they see it in the end."

"What happens around here?" Patricia asked. "You can't sit and eat scones all day."

"Of course we don't!" Mara chuckled. "We do whatever we want! If we want to swim in the pool, that's what we do! If we want to read on an empty field, that's what we do!"

"All you have to do is think it, and it happens." Eddie explained. "It's truly paradise."

"But some days we just like to... sit around and eat scones." Willow giggled. "Having an adventure everyday can be a bit tiring."

Patricia took a seat. "Do you guys want to know the truth? Do you want to know what was behind that door when you first came here?"

They stopped what they were doing suddenly.

"You guys come from where I come from, even if you don't remember." Patricia said. "In my world there are eight other amazing people who love you and care for you. You can go on crazy adventures with them. You have school, which is annoying but you will go because you learn new things, important things."

Eddie smiled. "That sounds nice." he said. "But I doubt it's as nice as it is here."

"Maybe those eight other people will find their way here as well, and we can all be happy together." Willow smiled. Patricia shook her head.

"You'd better hope if they come, it's with an escape." Patricia muttered. "You can't be happy all of the time."

"Yes we can," Mara said quite defensively. "Of course we can, why couldn't we?"

Patricia stared at her. "Because that's not... human?"

"Maybe not where you come from, but here it's very, uh, human." Eddie said. "There's nothing to be unhappy about."

Patricia had to disagree, but she didn't push it anymore.

* * *

 **Door 3**

It took twenty minutes to convince Nina to go back to the old and falling apart Anubis House. Fabian wanted to bring her back to safety before anything else happened. Then he'd come back for KT and Mick, wherever they were. If Nina knew his full plan, she'd likely not agree.

The walk was much longer than he expected it be. They avoided the area he was in before, she was positive there was still fighting happening. This, however, made them go through thick mud. She insisted he took his shoes off when walking through, claiming that she lost her shoes because of the mud.

While on the way, she told him how she got separated from KT and Mick. "We were welcomed into their homes. They have many more resources than us, so their homes were a bit more secure."

"Who?" Fabian asked.

"The VJeran Tribe." Nina said. "It was the first time we did not have to catch our food, and they nursed us back to health. They were incredibly nice. I ran."

"Why?" Fabian asked.

"Trust me, it wasn't right in there." Nina said. "I left, knowing I'd go back for KT and Mick. But I didn't get the chance. Days turned very quickly into weeks. When I saw them again they said they had chosen their side. At this point I was with Maya, the leader of the rebellion. They tried to get me to stand down but I wouldn't. So they captured me, but I escaped. I went back even more determined to help the resistance. I will get them back, Fabian, but the other side has to go down first."

Fabian, who had been listening without interruption, nodded. He had no doubt that Nina was not going to give up. He couldn't help but be annoyed by the fact that they chose to let Nina go on her own, and put their loyalty to some tribe. Fabian and Nina approached the House. Nina sighed and looked up at it.

"We stayed in there for months, before we found a place more secure that didn't leak whenever it rained." Nina said. "Hey, do you remember he riddle thing they told us when we first saw the doors? It's been a long time for me."

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, one door will have you fighting for the simplest things, one door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't, one door will find you back in your home." Fabian recited. "I suppose this is the door where you fight for the simplest things?"

"Yeah like water. Or sleep." Nina rolled her eyes. "Are you going to try out the door or not?"

Fabian nodded and opened the door. To his dismay he was met by the inside of a broken home. "Where are the other three doors?"

He turned and looked at Nina, who was sitting in the grass with her arms crossed. She didn't look surprised.

"You didn't think it'd work did you?"

"I was humoring you." she said. "We would have left long ago if all it took was opening the door."

Fabian, angry and frustrated, closed the door, and then opened it again. And he closed the door, and opened it again. Nothing. Then, he heard Nina yelp in pain. He turned to see Niina laying on the grass, seemingly unconscious. He looked up and saw many large people, some on horses, with large weapons. They looked at him and nodded at each other.

They approached him, but Fabian ran. The only way out was around them, and he managed to get past one. The others grabbed him however. "NINA!"

She didn't even stir as they dragged him away. He was taken up on one of the horses, and Nina was soon out of sight. He watched as the tall grass got shorter, the trees got thinner, and they passed a small pool of water. They slowed down when they got to some sort of village. He was taken down and directed towards a large, cement house. He thought it was a house anyway. When he went inside, there were many people laying down or sleeping. Some were cleaning their wounds. Then, over in the corner he saw them. They were talking to themselves.

Mick looked up first, and he looked surprised, which caused KT to look up as well. They weren't the only ones surprised. They were nearly unrecognizable. They had markings all over their faces and bodies, so that he could hardly see their faces, but it was them.

"Fabian." Mick said. If it weren't for the shocked look on his face, Fabian would think they knew he was coming, by the calmness of Mick's voice.

 _What happened to you?_

* * *

 **Door 4**

Amber sat on the floor in the corner, since there was no seat in the room. She looked around. The living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room was one big training space for fighting. The only similarity was that the window behind the couch, or where the couch was back home, was still in the same place. The curtain was closed.

She watched as Joy practiced all different types of kicks on a dummy. Jerome and Alfie were fighting each other, but this time Alfie fought back, which made her wonder why he stopped last time. So she asked him.

"I was in too much pain," he said while he blocked one of Jerome's throws. "Death when you can't die is more like a recharge. Gets rid of all bruises and pain-" Jerome did some kick thing and Alfie went down.

"Spinning hook kick." Jerome said proudly. "Joy's specialty, but I'm pretty good at it to-"

Jerome went down and Alfie stood over him. "What do you know, so am I."

Jerome hopped up. "If the blow to my head was too painful, I could just do myself in and when I wake up I'll be totally healed as if nothing happened."

"So he helped me." Alfie said.

Amber shook her head, "He helped you by strangling you, okay."

"Joy," Jerome said when Alfie and Jerome took a break and they watched the girl use all kinds of kicks on the dummy. "Can't you try fighting without using your feet?"

"I told you, I'm good at kicking, not good with the fists." she said doing some more kicks.

"That's because all you do kick, you don't get enough practice using your hands." Alfie said.

"C'mon," Jerome said getting into a stance. "Fight me without using your damn feet."

Joy sighed and got into a stance again. Alfie said, "C'mon man, strike her."

"Thanks for the support, buddy." Joy spat at him. He chuckled, whispered something in her ear and sat next to Amber to watch.

Jerome threw a punch, Joy ducked and landed a hook punch to Jerome's jaw. He stumbled back a bit and laughed. "Did Alfie tell you to do that?"

"Yeah he did." Joy smiled. They continued to spar for a while, until Jerome performed a perfect uppercut, sending Joy back and onto the floor. Amber gasped in horror when she saw all of the blood on her face. "You arse! You probably broke my nose or something!"

Joy stood up and used one of the towels on the side to stop the blood flow. Jerome laughed.

"Finish it." Alfie said from next to Amber.

"Quit whining blood bag." Jerome said before he twisted her neck and she landed on the floor. Amber stared at Joy until she stood back up, cleaned up the rest of the blood, and got a drink of water.

"Okay," Amber said. "I'm done, I can't see that happen ever again I'll lose my mind."

She went back to the front door but Jerome stopped her. "If there was a way out of here, we would have found it."

"Why can't we go out the way I came in?" Amber asked opening the front door, or at least she tried. But the door was locked, the door knob wouldn't even turn. Joy and Alfie stood behind her watching her struggle.

"We're stuck here Ambs," Alfie said. "And unfortunately you're here stuck with us."

Amber stopped trying to force the door open and backed up away from it. "Am I like you?"

They looked at each other. Joy said, "I don't know."

She turned to look at them, they looked uncomfortable. And even more so when she heard the door open. She whipped around, thinking her friends came to get them. But no one she recognized was there. Instead it was a grown man with his face covered behind a scarf, hat and glasses.

"Excuse me?" the voice came from behind his accessories. "Are you about to do a job?"

"No sir." they said.

"Then get back in there and continue your training!" Amber turned back and watched Alfie and Joy scramble inside. She looked back to the man. He walked with so much purpose towards her. "Especially you blonde, since you're new."

Amber hesitated. She tried to see past him to what was on the other side of the door, but the large man blocked her view. Plus what she did see wasn't the four door room. Too much light was coming from it. So, with a sunken heart, she followed her friends inside, where they were back to training. "Who was that?" she asked them. "Why isn't he surprised by me being here?"

"He's our commander," Jerome said. Amber rose her eyebrow. It was a cold day in hell if Jerome referred to anyone as his 'commander'."Just do what he says."

"He wasn't surprised by us when we came either." Joy explained.

Amber didn't know how to do any of the things that everyone else was doing. Alfie noticed her looking uncomfortable. "Come over here Amber, I'll show you some things."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **Door 1**

Patricia sat on her bed, trying to remember what made Alfie sick a couple years ago. She remembered that he came back from the doctors for something, but she didn't know what. In this world, this _door_ , she had her own room. Since there were four of them, and four rooms, she was just that... lucky.

"Come in," she said when she heard a knock on the door. The other three came in and smiled at her.

"We thought we might show you why being here... isn't a bad thing." Willow said. "Where would you like to go today?"

"Home, can you manage that?" Patricia snapped. Willow shrunk back, and Patricia felt a little guilty. Whatever was wrong with Willow and the others wasn't their fault. No need to snap at them because they don't know what's going on.

"How about the beach?" Mara asked. Eddie and Willow smiled. "Come on Patricia, please?"

Patricia grunted as Mara pulled her downstairs. Patricia had to admit what happened next was pretty amazing. When they opened the door, now unlocked and able to open without any problems, she thought for a heart lurching moment that they'd finally be able to go home. Instead, in front of her was a beach as if they lived on the coast of Costa Rica or Hawaii.

Willow giggled and ran out onto the boardwalk, and then began to run on the sand. She ended up falling, but welcomed the sand on her face and in her hair anyway. Mara quickly followed. Patricia stood where she was.

"Come on, you can't be in a bad mood _here_." Eddie smiled at her and took her hand in this. She smiled at their hands despite herself as he lead her out onto the beach. For a moment, she was convinced it was some kind of illusion, but the sun felt very real. When she took her shoes off, the sand felt very real. When she stepped into the waves, they were very _cold_ and still very real.

She was smiling. She couldn't help it. Eddie let her bury him in sand and turn him into a sand merman, and she made a huge sand castle with Mara and Willow.

Even the weather was perfect. They sat and watched the sun set. Eddie found her hand again. "Patricia?"

"Yes?"

He sighed. "In your world, were we uh... I don't know..." Eddie stumbled over his words. "Were we... good friends?"

Patricia smiled to herself. "We were really good friends. But we didn't like to act like it."

"Why?"

"Because we're both stubborn." Patricia shrugged. "Especially me, and I wouldn't let us be, uh... friends."

"What changed your mind?" Eddie asked. Patricia thought back, and found blankness. She groaned.

"I can't remember." she said. He frowned and nodded. "But I know there was a turning point, and we became... well we became, _really_ good friends."

Eddie chuckled. "I remember missing someone. Someone really close to me."

Patricia smiled. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, I would think about them every day. Until I couldn't remember who it was I missed so much." Eddie said. "Do you think you, uh, know who that person is?"

Patricia smiled to herself and squeezed his hand. "I think I may have a pretty good idea."

* * *

 **Door 3**

KT and Mick had the decency to move away from all of the people so they could talk in private. They were a few feet from the village. "You found the door then?"

"Yeah it was door two." Fabian said. "Apparently, an hour in the second door is a year in the uh, well here."

Mick raised his eyebrows. At a closer glance, it was apparent that their days weren't nice to them either. They were in much better shape than Nina, but they were still scared up. KT had a bad scar on her cheek, and Mick had one on his neck. Those were some of the areas visible to him behind their facepaint.

"What's with the black face stuff?" Fabian asked.

"All of the ratnici wear it." KT explained.

"I'm sorry, what?" Fabian asked, before deciding he didn't care. "Look, how could you abandon Nina?"

They shifted a little, looking uncomfortable. KT said, "We didn't."

"That's not what she told me." Fabian said.

"I don't know what she's told you-" Mick began.

"Oh, then I'll let you know." Fabian said his anger flaring up. "She said after you guys were captured by the people here, she escaped and when she saw you again you decided to help out these-" he motioned to the village, "-people instead of staying with _her_. Nina, you know, your _friend._ "

They looked at each other. "You don't know the full story." KT said. "They were nothing but great to her and she didn't appreciate it. She chose to run. These people are the victims here!"

"Everyone used to live in this small society. And then a group of rebels broke off and began to attack everyone else. The people here, they don't even want to fight, they want peace, but the rebels don't want that." Mick said. "The pobunjenik- er... rebel leader, Maya, wants to take down Anajah and rule herself."

"She is not the legitimate leader, we're just trying to help put things back in order." KT said.

"I don't know any of these people, therefore I don't trust them." Fabian said. "But I know Nina, and I _trust_ her. And I would never abandon her."

"Fabian we didn't abandon her!" KT yelled. "She ran from us!"

"And she's not the same person she was when you knew her either." Mick said. "She's helped the pobunjenik trupe by doing things you could not believe."

"We can't support her." KT said. "You just don't understand."

"You don't know everything." Mick said. "You've only just gotten here. We've been here for a while."

"We wouldn't be separated like this if it weren't necessary." KT said.

Fabian shook his head. "Have you seen Nina lately? Do you know the shape she is in?"

They nodded slowly. "Last we saw her was in battle a little over a week ago. She can't be in much worse shape than she was then."

"Well she is." Fabian said. "I mean, maybe, I don't know how she was then. But I know now she's lying unconscious on the ground because of _your_ people."

"What?" KT said, genuinely surprised. "No, they're against unnecessary violence. If she was struck down it was because she attacked first."

"You don't have to go down her road." Mick said. "In fact it'd be better if you didn't."

"My loyalty is where it's supposed to be, with Nina." Fabian said. Mick looked sad.

"Then you have to understand that you give us no choice." Mick said. Fabian stuck something in his neck that made him instantly droozy.

"It will give you a peaceful sleep for a few hours." KT said. "We can't have you go with the rebels. It will just cause more troubles."

Fabian fell to his knees, the world seemed to melt into the ground, until there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

 **Door 4**

They continued to train, helping Amber with different things. But where they seemed to be able to go on for hours without stopping, she needed a break. After a little while, Alfie sat down by her. "You know they're going out now. Joy and Jerome."

Amber's jaw dropped. "Really? They are?"

"Yup."

"But they don't act like it!" Amber watched them. "Are my love guru skills on the fritz?"

"Nah, they were a lot more lovey dovey in the beginning." Alfie said. "Made it pretty lonely here."

"Well now I'm here." Amber smiled.

"You have no idea how much I missed you." Alfie said. "Which is why I should tell you now, I kissed Joy."

Amber looked at him quickly. She wasn't expecting that. "When?"

"Well, after we had been here for over two months, they got in a huge fight and stopped speaking to each other. And she got lonely. And I was lonely."

"This was while she was with Jerome?" Amber asked. Alfie looked at his feet. "Alfie Lewis, I thought you knew better than that!"

"Come on Amber, you have no idea how lonely I was, cut me some slack." Alfie said.

"Does Jerome know?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, which made things pretty rough for a while." Alfie said. "But that was years ago now. It's as if you were still mad at Mara for going out with Mara."

Amber had to admit she was completely over that. "Okay."

"You're not mad?" Alfie asked.

"I always thought it wouldn't matter to me what the situation is, cheating is never acceptable." Amber said. "But I never thought of this particular situation, so you get a pass."

Alfie smiled. "Good, because since you're here I won't be lonely anymore."

Amber smiled too, and laid her head on his shoulder. It was nice.

Until it was ruined.

The Commander came in and Alfie jumped up so fast Amber fell to the side. He sent her an apologetic look. "Boy, what were you doing?"

"Just taking a break. S-sir." Alfie tried to get out without stuttering. Amber stared at him with her mouth ajar. The power this man had over them made her extremely uncomfortable.

"Break over." he said. "Anyway, I have a job for you. Follow me."

Joy, Jerome, and Alfie followed him, so Amber stood up to follow as well but was stopped.

"Not you blonde." he said. "It's not your time yet."

The doors slid shut, and Amber was left in the room alone. It made the room seem huge. She stood there for a while, not knowing what to do with herself. She didn't move or talk or anything. The doors slid open again and Jerome walked in alone.

"Alfie sent me to explain to you because he has to get ready. We have a job, we'll be gone for a few hours." Jerome said. "Tomorrow morning at the latest."

"What's the job?" Amber asked.

"It's hard to explain, but we have to go now." Jerome left again, and no one came back. Something told her whatever the job was, it wasn't hard to explain as much as he didn't want to. While she waited, she ate. Then she tried out some of the moves the others taught her, but she wasn't nearly as good as them.

It had been hours. Just as she was beginning to wonder where she slept, or if she slept, they came back. She watched them run up the steps with a bag of something. There was blood on Joy's shirt, which had her wonder if there was any 'dying' involved in the job.

"Alfie-"

He turned towards her, "I'll be down soon."

He disappeared up the steps, and she had to wonder what kind of _job_ they had.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **Door 1**

The beach was amazing.

Two days later and she still couldn't believe how perfect it had been. They hadn't gone anywhere else, they seemed to like to relax a lot. Willow knocked on her door, and she waved her inside. She sat on the bed next to Patricia.

"I just was wondering how you were." she said. "You've been in here alone all day, and you've hardly eaten."

"I'm good." Patricia said truthfully. "I've just been... thinking."

"About what?" Willow prodded.

Patricia shrugged. "The four doors."

Willow's smile dropped.

"No, no hear me out." Patricia said. "Before we went in there was a riddle. Each door held something special behind it. Two were bad, one was supposed to be good, and one sent us home."

"Maybe this was the good door!" Willow grinned.

"Yeah I think it was." Patricia agreed. "And so I think myself to be very lucky. Because I could have ended up somewhere else. And I ended up here."

Willow smiled.

"But it also worries me, because if this is the good door, the other two were the bad doors. And I have no idea what's behind them. But I'm afraid my friends might be suffering."

Willow nodded. "Tell me about your friends."

"They're your friends too." Patricia said immediately. "There's Fabian, and Amber. I think they both might be geniuses."

"Really?" Willow asked. "I've never met a genius."

"You have, okay? You've met ten. Two of them are here with you, even if they don't remember." Patricia assured her.

"I'm sure there are three here with me." Willow smiled. Patricia rolled her eyes and attempted to hide her smile. "Who else."

"Well there's my best friend..." Patricia said smiling while thinking of them. "Her name is..."

Patricia sat up suddenly, startling Willow. "Is everything okay?"

Patricia jumped off the bed and started pacing frantically. Willow watched worriedly. "I've known her for over a decade, she's been with me through everything she knows things not even my _sister_ knows about me! Why can't I remember her name?"

Willow watched her stop in her tracks.

"My sister, I can't remember her either!" Patricia started hitting her head. "I can't remember the American girl who came here two years ago, I can't remember the meathead jock, those two weasels, I can't remember anything!"

Willow jumped off the bed and held Patricia's shoulders, "Its okay-"

"NO!" Patricia pushed her away. "I have to get out of here before they take everything!"

Patricia ran out of her room and sped down the stairs. She ripped open the door, but was met with just the outside. " **NO!** "

"What's happening?" came Mara's voice.

"P-Patricia please stop!" said Willow who was coming down the stairs after her. Patricia slammed the door shut and started banging on it.

"TAKE ME HOME! TAKE ME HOME!"

* * *

The next thing she knew she was in her bed, waking up. She was breathing rapidly. Eddie was on the edge of the bed watching her. "What happened?"

"I... I really don't know." Eddie said. "But whenever we express how we hate it here, they take us somewhere and do something horrible to us."

Patricia sat up. "What do they do?"

Eddie shrugged. "They take the memories away. You just get the aftermath of it all."

Patricia shook her head, Eddie gave her a glass of water. She hadn't realized she was shaking until she took the glass and the water was nearly spilling from it.

"Whatever they do, it's... traumatizing." Eddie said.

"If you don't want to be here, why don't you fight? Why don't you do something about it?" Patricia asked.

"What can we do? We're powerless."

Patricia took a long sip of her water, and then gave it back to Eddie. "The Eddie I know, wouldn't give up without a fight."

He seemed to be thinking about this for a few minutes, before answering. "If I don't have any of his memories, or any of his past experiences, or any of his relationships, am I really the Eddie you know?"

Patricia leaned back and pulled the covers over herself, turning away from the intruder with Eddie's face. "I suppose not."

* * *

 **Door 3**

The seljani had some sort of holding facility for their prisoners. Fabian suspected it was at least partially underground, because he knew he'd been in there a while but it never got light in there. He didn't know how long it had been before Nina found him. She took his hand, like the first day, and lead him somewhere where there was more light. He had to climb a rope to get to the surface. When he reached the top he realized the entrance was some kind of empty well made larger underground for their 'stanica'.

Nina gathered the rope again, while Fabian shielded his eyes from the sun. He lost one of his shoes. "This place really isn't made for shoes is it?"

"Shh." Nina whispered. "Do you want us to get caught? I remember you being smart."

"Thanks for the rescue by the way," Fabian smiled. Nina rolled her eyes.

"Do you think I did that for you?" Nina asked. "I needed to be sure I wasn't hallucinating you a few days ago, now _quiet down_."

Fabian sighed quietly. "Don't they usually have guards around prisoners?" Fabian asked a lot quieter.

"Yes." Nina said shortly. Fabian stepped forward to help her, before stepping in some kind of liquid. He squinted down and gasped.

Quickly he looked around, three people were dead. "Did... did you do this?"

Nina paused. "Are you going to run away from me?"

Fabian stared at her. For a moment she stared back, then went back to gathering the rope.

"No." she said. "I didn't have to, I wasn't the only one with a friend down there."

Fabian looked around. "Where are the others then?"

"They fled. I was told to gather the rope." Nina explained. "And then get back there as fast as possible, so I hope you can run with one shoe because it won't be long before the watches are supposed to shift."

"Why would they leave you?"

"Our army is small, if everyone stayed and got caught we could lose ten, as opposed to just you and me." Nina explained. He supposed it made sense, but he still didn't like it .

"What's so important about the rope?" Fabian asked as she tied it tightly around her hips so it wouldn't fall while she was running.

"It's just useful, and we don't have many resources." Nina said.

"Nina."

Nina and Fabian turned around to see KT, Mick, and one other person. Nina looked shocked. "You two are the next watchers? Should have known. Trust my luck to pull this little prank on me."

Mick and KT didn't move, but the huge man behind them did. He shot an arrow at Fabian, but Nina jumped in front of it and it got her in the shoulder, she cried out in pain and the guy with the arrow took out a spear. KT and Mick still didn't move, as if frozen.

Nina pushed Fabian to the side, pulled the arrow out, and took out a makeshift stake and some kind of shiv. She held them in a fighting stance. Fabian stood up to help her, but Mick stopped him by holding his arms.

"Who are you two?" he spat. "Because you are not the same people I knew."

"No we're not." KT said to him, picking up a large rock. "But neither is she."

KT moved out of his vision just in time so he could watch Nina cut the guys knee, so he fell, and knock him down. She turned towards KT and Mick, and that's the last thing Fabian saw before KT used the rock to knock him out.

When he awoke, he was on some of the animal fur in the old warehouse. This time there were others around, sleeping and eating. He looked at the back wall, four more lines had been drawn. Nina was there with a wrapped shoulder and a black eye, tending to his head. When she saw he was awake, she gave him water.

"What happened?" Fabian asked.

"After KT hit you? Not much." Nina said. "Obviously I'm no match for both KT and Mick."

"So how'd you get away?" Fabian asked.

"They let me go." Nina said.

Fabian's eyebrows rose. "Maybe they're-"

"And then they blew the rog and sent their people after us. Knowing I'd be slowed down with your weight."

Fabian flared up. "What is the point of them letting you go then!?"

"Shut up!" Nina whispered. "It's very rude to wake up people when they're trying to rest."

"I'm sorry, I just can't believe them." Fabian said.

Nina shook her head. "If they didn't blow the horn, Anajah and the others would know they let us go. You can't get mad at them, Fabian. You don't know the full story."

Fabian narrowed his eyes at her. "They said the same thing."

"Well... they don't know the full story either." Nina said. "You can't hold anything they do against them. The VJeran Tribe are manipulating them."

Fabian sat up, slowly. "Manipulating them?"

Nina nodded. "They're brainwashed. They're being told things so they would fight with the tribe. So they'd have a larger army. You have to understand... it's very complicated."

Fabian had to agree.

* * *

 **Door 4**

Amber sat up quickly when she heard the others get back. She pressed the button so her door slid open and watched them run up the steps again. They all had blood on their shirt this time. Over the past week they had three jobs, and this one seemed to be the worse one. She went by how much blood was on their shirt when they come back. The first time, Joy had blood on her shirt. The second time, no one had any blood. This time, they looked like the went down a slide with blood all over it.

Amber followed them up the steps this time, and they went into The Commander's office, which was coincidentally where Victor's office was back home. The door slid shut and she pressed her ear to it. Unfortunately she couldn't hear a thing. Just muffled words. Angry and annoyed, she went downstairs just as the door slid open.

"Hey Ambs!" Alfie smiled. Amber sent him a small wave.

"Hurry and change." The commander said from the top of the steps. Apparently the other three hadn't realized he had come out of his office with them, because his voice scared them so much Jerome had to grip the banister and the other two nearly fell down the steps. "I'll be watching your training today."

"Yes sir," they said running to the showers.

"And... Ming will be joining me in watching you." The commander said. Amber watched for their reactions, but they didn't seem to have one. Maybe Ming came often.

While the others were in the showers, Amber met Ming. The Commander smiled at her. "Blonde, this is Ming-Húa. He works with the others."

"On the jobs?" Amber asked.

"No," The Commander said. "He's their trainer. He comes here a few times a week."

"She's very pretty." Ming said. "When was she finished?"

 _Finished_?

"A week today." The Commander said. "They've been teaching her."

"Good." Ming said approvingly. That was around when the others came back, and greeted Ming, and they all went into the training room.

Joy had become Amber's partner. Sometimes she fought Jerome and sometimes she fought Alfie, but mostly she paired with Joy. Joy always went easy on her. Whereas when any of them fought each other, they fought as if they wanted to kill the other. Perhaps that really was what they were aiming for.

Joy and Amber balanced each other out. Joy was more experienced, so there hadn't been a time she did not beat Amber, but Amber was taller and caught on well with her hands, Joy's weak spot.

They did their normal regimen for a while, Jerome and Alfie both 'finished' each other during their fight, much to Ming's delight. Apparently he got a lot of pleasure in watching them die, which was absolutely sick. Soon they moved on to weapons, ending with knife throwing.

Amber stayed away, she'd never got a lesson on knife throwing. It was fascinating to watch. They set up dummies so that they moved in front of them. They hit _every_ target. if not bullseye, close to it. Especially Joy, she was incredible.

"Stand up Blonde." Ming said. "Observe. Learn."

Amber stood up and moved closer to the three. They didn't notice, they were focused. They hit the targets, one after another.

" **Behind you!** " Ming yelled.

Without missing a beat, they turned with their next knife and threw them behind them. Jerome and Joy's knives hit the dummies, and Alfie's hit Amber. Right in the neck.

Amber went down with a white hot pain starting at her neck and going to every part of her body. Hot blood spilled down her neck and into her mouth as her eyes pooled with tears. She could hear yelling from a distance, Alfie, Jerome, and Joy.

"WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF IT WORKS WITH HER!"

"And now we'll know."

Another wave of pain and nausea came as the knife was removed and the rest of their argues were lost on her while she coughed blood up. Her vision got spotty, until finally the pain was gone.

She opened her eyes, blinking tears away, and stood up at five faces. Jerome, Alfie, and Joy all looked horrified but relieved. The other two, Ming and The Commander, looked ecstatic. Joy handed her a towel and she wiped her face, and coughed up more blood.

"Perfect." The Commander said as Jerome and Alfie helped Amber up. No one else said anything, while Ming and The Commander went upstairs to talk about this. It seemed now that they knew Amber was okay, they weren't going to speak up anymore.

Amber pushed them away to run to the bathroom, where she was met with the taste of blood, and a past meal. When she was finished, she washed her face, and rinsed her mouth out. And then she wasn't in the mood to train or talk, so she just went into her room and went to sleep.

When she woke up, she knew she couldn't stay in her room all day like she wanted to, so she slowly went into the training room. The other three were already there, sparing. They stopped as soon as she came in.

"Are you okay?" Jerome asked. Amber nodded, though she still felt a little sick. She couldn't help but notice that not only was the pain from the knife, but all the pain that was in her joints from working and the bruises from sparring was all gone as well. The Commander came in, and her friends all stood a little straighter.

"I have another job for you." he said. It wasn't normal that they had a job two days in a row. Amber went to back up, but The Commander stopped her. "You're going on it, Blonde."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Door 1**

Patricia watched as Mara threw the vase at the wall, sending glass water and flowers everywhere. They shielded themselves from the shards. "I HATE THIS PLACE!"

No one knew what caused this, but she just erupted and started yelling. Patricia ran to Mara, she did not want Mara to go through what Patricia had. She tried to calm her down, Willow and Eddie were as well. Then, she felt Mara put some paper in her hand and then push her away. Patricia looked at the paper.

 _Now is your chance. Go now._

Patricia gaped at it for a second before running up to the attic. It suddenly all made sense. Earlier, Patricia expressed to Mara how she wanted to check out the attic. Obviously something important was in there if the other three were stopped from entering. Mara shot the idea down immediately.

"Shh, you can't!" she had said. "You'll get caught. We're monitored at all times while we're in here. You'd need a major distraction. A big one."

Patricia used a bobby pin to open the door and ran up the steps. What she saw were four hourglasses. All of them had different colored marbles in them: green, purple, blue, and red. The first three were full at the bottom and empty at the top. The last one, some marbles were at the bottom, but most were clear and at the top. She watched as a clear marble turned red and fell to the bottom with the others.

"They've literally lost their marbles." Patricia said. "And I'm next."

Quickly, she ran down stairs. Mara was still yelling, but she knew she wouldn't have much longer. She grabbed a bag and ran back upstairs, just as another marble fell in the red hourglass. She grabbed the red hourglass, turned it upside down, and pried it open. She reached inside and took out a marble.

Suddenly she remembered the time she and the two goofballs, she still unfortunately couldn't remember their names, were up late and the shorter one was posing as a psychic to contact her best friend. Whoever she was, wherever she was.

She looked down at the marble, it was clear again. She took out another marble, and she smiled as her best friend's name was slipping back into her memory.

A thump downstairs caused her to drop the marble, and it shattered. Annoyed, she emptied the red marbles into the bag, and did the same with the other three. She ran downstairs, put the bag under her bed, and ran to the first floor in time to see Mara taken away.

She came back hours later, unconscious and pale. Willow and Eddie took care of her, while Patricia tried to think of how to show them her findings without the other people finding out. It took her a while to think about it. Then she remembered while eating dinner, what Mara said. "We're monitored at all times while we're in here."

 _While we're in here._

"Can we go somewhere?" Patricia said suddenly over the dinner table. The others, Mara included, looked surprised.

"Uh... sure." Willow shrugged. "Where? When?"

"Right now." Patricia said. "If you're okay with it."

Mara shrugged, "I'm not very hungry."

Willow and Eddie looked at each other, before agreeing.

"I know where we can go!" Willow grinned.

"Great!" Patricia said getting up. "Give me one second."

She ran upstairs and took the bag from under the bed and came back down.

"We're not going to go hiking..." Willow said slowly.

"Don't worry about the bag, just open the door." Patricia said. Willow shrugged and opened the door, to a beautiful grass and flower field with a shining sun, despite the fact that it was evening. Similar to the beach, she ran outside without shoes. Patricia followed them out and closed the door. She let them run around for a while. There was a blanket on the side, it seemed to come with the meadow, she spread it open and sat on it. Soon they sat next to her on the blanket as well.

"So what's in the bag?" Mara asked.

Patricia smiled and emptied the marbles onto the blanket. A few were cracked, but they were all there.

Eddie picked up a blue one. "Pretty."

Mara picked up a purple one and gasped. Patricia watched the purple marble turn clear. "There was a boy, a blonde boy! He wasn't- he was just running, and I was timing him! Who was that?"

Patricia thought back, but couldn't think of a name. This prompted her to grab some of the red marbles. Memory after memory flowed into her head.

"What's happening?" Eddie asked. He picked up a few marbles, but only the green one began to go clear and he had a dazed look.

"There was a boy... he was eating orange stuff, I was... laughing at him."

"Are... Are these our memories?" Mara asked picking up another purple marble. "Is this what you found in the attic?"

"You went in the attic?" Willow asked. Her fingers hovered over a blue marble, before she finally picked it up. The marble went clear and Willow smiled. "Some party... a lot of people were there. There was cake!"

And suddenly they were all grasping for their marbles, until the only marbles left were clear ones. Patricia looked up at her old friends, they were staring at her with admiration.

"Patricia..." Mara said looking tearful.

"You have no idea how much I missed you, Yacker." Eddie smiled. Patricia smiled too. But she still had a hole in her memory.

"Can someone tell me my best friend's name?" Patricia asked. "I dropped that particular marble, ironically." Willow giggled.

"Joy Mercer." she said.

Patricia breathed a sigh of relief. "Joy."

* * *

 **Door 3**

Fabian was awoken by coughing, and was surprised by the heat radiating off of Nina's sleeping body. He sat up, the day was just beginning and Maya was awake. She looked over at him when she heard him moving. Fabian gulped, Nina was the only one he talked to since he arrived, besides KT and Mick.

"Uh... Maya..." he gulped again. "Do you have something for her fever?"

Mara stared at him for a moment, and then nodded. She went out for a little bit, but came back with wet moss. He thanked her, and place the moss on Nina's forehead. Maya came over and ripped open Nina's shirt. Fabian blushed and looked away as Maya placed moss on Nina's chest.

Nina didn't wake up for hours, but when she did she was startled by how empty the warehouse was. "They went out for more supplies." Fabian explained.

Nina quickly sat up, letting the moss drop off of her. She got a new shirt and was about to put it on when Fabian stopped her.

"What are you doing, Fabian?" Nina asked. "I'm a gatherer, I have to help-"

"Maya already exempted you for the day, because you are _sick._ " Fabian said. "So you can take a break from being Tarzan for a little while and lay down."

Nina continued to put on the other shirt, but she did as he said and sat back down. He put the moss back on her forehead after she took a sip of water. Not much, she was afraid to use up all of the resources. Fabian had to convince her to take more by reminding her that they were getting more as they spoke.

"Being here has really helped me in appreciating what I had." Nina said. "And I didn't have much to begin with."

"I'm never going to get used to going to the bathroom out here." Fabian shivered. Nina laughed.

"Once, KT and Mick and I wiped ourselves with poison ivy." Nina reminisced.

"That sounds horrible!" Fabian said trying to stop himself from laughing.

"Believe me it was at the time, but looking back it's just funny." Nina smiled, which was enough for Fabian to know to laugh. "We were rubbing our asses on the ground, it was awful."

Fabian couldn't stop the snort that escaped him. "Maya didn't help you?"

Nina shook her head. "This was earlier in the year. I didn't know Maya, none of us did. But thanks to her, now I'm an expert at knowing plants and which ones are safe."

Fabian smiled. "If I ever want to go camping when we get back, you're definitely coming with me."

Nina sat up. "Fabian... there's no way back. We tried everything."

Fabian shook his head. "I came here to take you back to our world."

"This is our world-"

"No our _real_ world." Fabian interrupted her.

Nina stared at him. "Do you see all of my scars? This place is as real as Anubis was."

Fabian stared at her. "You're saying you don't want to go back?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't _not_ say that." Fabian pointed out. "Don't you want to go home?"

"Yeah..." Nina said. "I just don't know how I'll readjust is all."

"I'm sure you'll find a way." Fabian said.

Nina sighed and laid down. Fabian thought she was going back to sleep, until she spoke again. "If there was a way back, we'd have found it."

Fabian shook his head. Nina fell asleep again, he could tell by her breathing. He was tempted to go back to Anubis and try the door again, but he didn't want to leave her. The others came back at evening with some dead animal that they cooked in the same clearing Sibuna used to meet at. When Maya gave him the meat on tree bark, he wondered what kind it was. Then he decided, he actually didn't want to know.

He woke Nina up and fed her, before she went to sleep again. While she rested, he tried to think of ways to convince Nina not to give up. Maybe if he got Mick and KT back, she'd be motivated again.

He decided that was his next mission. He had to get Mick and KT back. And soon. Patricia, Amber and everyone else would be waiting for them.

* * *

 **Door 4**

Amber studied her friends while they drove to... wherever they were going. They were not happy when The Commander told them Amber would be joining them on their next job.

"She's not ready!" Alfie insisted.

"It was months before we started them." Joy pointed out.

The Commander was persistent. Amber was pretty happy. She'd finally be let in on the secrets. She'd finally be told the truth. She wouldn't have to be left alone for hours. They were given two pictures. One of a man, Andrew apparently. One of a car license plate. They were told where to go, and they found the car with the license plate. They parked and watched the car. Soon, Andrew got in the car and drove off. They were now following him.

They had to stay far enough away so that they weren't noticeable, but close enough to see him. When he parked, they parked as well, and watched as he went inside of an apartment building.

"Amber, stay in the car." Jerome said as he took the key out of the key.

"What? No way! I-"

"Seriously Amber..." Alfie said. "Stay. In. The. _Car_."

He closed the door and the three ran inside. Jerome picked the locked, and slipped inside. Amber sat down for a good four seconds before saying, "Screw them."

She ran to the apartment building, luckily she knew how to pick the lock too. They all did after finding out how useful it was. Eddie and Jerome taught them. It took her longer, but she managed. She ran up the steps to the top door, which was cracked open a little bit. She wasn't sure it was the right door until she heard voices, but when she peaked in no one was in sight. She slipped inside and followed the voices. They were all in the kitchen. She peaked through the kitchen door.

"A'ight," Andrew said backing up into the wall. Amber was unfamiliar with his accent. It wasn't British or American..."Tell your boss, I don't got the money yet. I was told three days."

"He's been watching you." Joy said. "Apparently you got a bus ticket from one of your friends."

Andrew looked surprised and scared. "Ok, Ok, I was gonna dip, but I knew what he'd do to me if I ain't 'ave the money. It's hard out here, and I can't get you the money yet."

Jerome nodded. "I understand not having bank. I've had that problem plenty of times."

Andrew looked hopeful. "Look, you let me go 'nd I'll disappear. Never have to see me again."

"Is that right?" Alfie asked.

"Yeah yeah!" Andrew assured him. "You can even tell ya boss ya finished me off.?"

Andrew slid his finger across his neck. Amber could nearly _hear_ Jerome's eyeroll.

"Here's the thing, _Drew_." Joy said stepping forward. Andrew backed up, or at least tried. He was already against the wall. "If we don't hurt you, he hurts us?"

"Yeah, I don't know about you Drew, but I'm not in the mood to deal with an angry boss." Alfie said.

"Also there's the fact that you managed to buy yourself a new watch, and a new hat and yet... you don't have enough money for us?"

"So here's what's going to happen." Jerome said playing with the stove. "You're going to give us the money right now-"

"I believe you owe 800 pounds? It's not even close to the amount this one guy owed him," Joy laughed.

"-Or we're going to kill you." Jerome said. Both Andrew and Amber winced at the word 'kill.' That couldn't be right. It had to be a scare tactic.

"I don't 'ave it man!" Andrew yelled.

Jerome whistled. "Bummer."

"So how do you want to do this?" Alfie asked casually.

"I'm tired, I want to do it quick." Joy said. "We didn't get any orders to draw it out, so can we just finish it?"

That caught Amber off guard. If they were trying to scare him, why would they say they would make it quick? If Amber were scaring someone, she'd say to draw it out with as much pain as possible. Without flinching, Jerome took the knife and sliced his throat. The blood, _so much_ , dripped down every part of him as he gagged and fell to the ground. Jerome handed the knife to Alfie, who cleaned it in the sink, dried it, and put it in the dry wrack.

Joy turned around, squinted at the door, then her eyes widened. "Amber!"

The other two turned to look at Amber and she chose that time to sprint from the house, into the car.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Door 1**

 **Six Months ago**

 **Day 1**

Mara and Willow followed Eddie inside. At first glance they thought they'd chosen the right door. It was all very similar to home, but it wasn't home. Quickly they tried to go back, but the door closed and it wouldn't open again.

 **Day 2**

They decided to sleep on it, promising themselves they'd find a way out again later. The next morning, they tried again. "It's opening!" Mara exclaimed.

"What? Was it just locked before or someth-" Eddie cut himself off as he realized that it wasn't opening to the four door room, but just the outside.

"But... but how do we get home?" Willow asked. Mara and Eddie wanted to know that themselves.

 **Day 3**

They started noticing that their memories were slowly slipping away after Mara asked Willow what her favorite breakfast food was. They'd all been stressed the day before, trying to figure out how to fix the door, and the next morning had been presented with muffins. Willow was the most stressed, and to take her mind off of it, Mara asked her an innocent conversation starter, and Willow couldn't answer. Not because she didn't have one, but because she couldn't remember. Mara had been trying to be level headed about it, but soon enough she was taking it worse than anybody. It was hard enough wrapping her head around what was happening before she started to forget things. That would be expected, not that any of them were taking it well, How does one react to losing their memories?

It wasn't until later on that day when she finally cracked. She made a mess of things, it was very bad. Suddenly people arrived to take her away. This was Eddie's breaking point.

"What are you _doing_ to us!" Eddie yelled. Willow watched with horror as her friends fell apart. They took Eddie as well, and she didn't see her friends again for hours. When they came back, they weren't the same.

Willow knocked on Mara's door, she laid quietly. She was just waking up. "Mara? Are you okay?"

"I'm great." Mara said quickly. "Everything's great. I'm happy."

Mara looked far from happy. Willow shivered.

 **Day 5**

They couldn't remember any of their old friends. They tried the door every time but was met with the same thing. So they did some exploring. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Normal furniture, normal house. Infact, if it weren't for slowly losing every memory they've ever had, the place was completely normal.

Then they got to the attic, and Willow supplied Eddie the a hair pin. Just as he was about to unlock the door, the people came and took them away. Not to the same place they took Mara and Eddie, just back downstairs away from the Attic door.

 **Day 11**

There were few things they still remembered. Willow made a list. Eddie remembered, "My name. I'm the Osirion. My dad is a principal, but I don't know what the school's name is, or his name for that matter. Some red head girl. My leather jacket."

Mara remembered, "My mum. I remember her face. I can't remember anything else about her. My dad, he used to push me to do something. Dunno what. A very big house with a very kind woman, and a very scary man. Some blonde lady saying bad things."

"What did she say?" Eddie wondered.

"Who knows." Mara shrugged. "That's about it."

"I remember," Willow started. "Egypt. I don't think I've ever been though, strangely. I remember a black dog, many pictures of a black dog. A few people, not many. I don't know their names. One very pretty blonde girl and one very funny boy. I don't know what's funny about him. I just know he's funny. Another boy, very handsome. Do you guys remember the four doors?"

They shook their heads. She bit her lip. "I think it's how we got here."

It was just as well. She couldn't remember the four doors by the time she went to sleep that night, just that she had once had a thought about four doors.

 **Day 15**

"I think they're all gone." Mara said. "I can't remember anything. You guys?"

"Nothing." Eddie said. "Willow?"

"I remember remembering things but I don't remember the things that I remembered." Willow said thoughtfully. "Does that make sense?"

"Yeah." Mara said. "I followed."

"If we can't remember anything, how are you sure our names, the ones that we're calling each other at least, are our names?" Eddie asked. Mara looked thoughtful.

"They're the names we called each other when we... when we..." Mara trailed off.

"Remembered?" Willow supplies. Mara nodded. This seemed to satisfy Eddie.

 **Day 45**

"What do you think the world we came from was like?" Willow asked dreamily one morning. Eddie and Mara looked over quickly.

"Willow, shh..." Mara said very quietly, then spoke louder. "Why would you care about the world we came from?"

"Yeah, it's great here." Eddie droned eating a grape and sounding a bit like a machine with sarcasm. Mara rolled her eyes at Eddie.

"Seriously?" Mara asked exasperated. " _Seriously_?"

Eddie sighed and turned to Willow. "I don't know where we came from, but... I don't ever... want to go back."

Eddie actually attempted for that to sound convincing. Mara knew, and didn't say anything else. Willow knew what would happen if she kept talking the way she had for a few days now, but she didn't stop. "So then I guess you're _glad_ they took your memories."

Eddie sent her an exasperated look. "Yeah I guess I am."

Willow shook her head and left, and the other two watched her go.

 **Day 67**

Mara and Eddie were getting increasingly better at making it seem like they enjoyed their time at the place, like they didn't mind what happened to them. Willow was not. Willow had yet to have _it_ happen to her, and the other two were trying desperately to keep it from happening. But it seemed Willow could only take so much.

One morning, she wouldn't eat anything. Then she abruptly left from the table knocking her chair over and not bothering to pick it up.

"Willow?" Mara said hesitantly.

Willow stopped walking right in front of the door. Eddie and Mara followed her, they had a feeling this was her the day it would happen. "I don't know who I am."

Eddie gulped. "Okay well just sit down and... and..." Mara was better at this than he was.

"And what?" Willow asked. "Join your conversation about how great it is here? Maybe you guys can pretend everything's-"

Eddie and Mara stepped forward and Mara took the lead this time. "No one is pretending Willow, it takes some getting used to but-"

Willow pushed Mara away from her. "Screw you! Who am I?" she asked seemingly more to herself than anyone else. She looked up to the ceiling. "HOW CAN YOU JUST TAKE EVERYTHING FROM ME, AND EXPECT ME TO BE OKAY WITH IT?"

Mara and Eddie watched it happen, as Willow screamed louder and louder until the men came and took her away kicking and screaming,

 **Day 68**

Willow had learned.

She learned she was supposed to be happy.

Always.

Always happy.

 **Day 92**

"HELLO?" Eddie screamed. Mara was in her bed groaning and crying. She'd been sick all day. "CAN SOMEONE HELP ME? I'M NOT A DOCTOR!"

And then he wondered if maybe he was. He looked in the mirror. No he was too young. Maybe he studied medicine at some point. He looked around wondering where if he'd see the people. He mumbled angrily and took some paper and a pen and wrote, "Aspirin?" And held it up to the cameras. He had no idea where they were, so he just held the paper up towards the ceiling. When nothing happened he slammed it on the table.

"Come everytime we express unhappiness but the moment we actually need them, nothing." Eddie muttered. It was what made him crack that one day that felt like light years earlier now. When they showed up they thought they were alone. But it turns out there were others, and they were watching them, providing no help while they suffered. It broke him.

But an hour later he went back in the room and the note was gone. In it's place was a bottle of Aspirin.

 **Day 130**

 _Try the door._

That was the note they got from the watchers. All three of them stared at the door. "Are they saying we can go outside?" Mara asked.

Willow knocked on it, nothing happened. They were at it for hours before they gave up and just sat on the steps outside for a little while.

 **Day 152**

Mara took out a book she read five times. She was going to sit outside. She couldn't help but wish there was a library in the house. She opened the door and her jaw dropped.

"Guys... I think I figured out what the note meant."

Willow and Eddie basically ran out and stared open mouthed. In front of them was the inside of a library.

"How did you..."

"I just thought about a library and I opened the door and..." Mara said.

"Ooh let me try!" Willow closed the door, closed her eyes, and opened it again. In front of them was a lake with mountains behind them. Eddie sighed.

"We've been here five months and only now we learn of this particular feature."

 **Day 182**

It had become increasingly easier to pretend to be happy after learning of the door. In fact, most of the time they weren't even pretending anymore. One day were sitting eating scones and croissants when they heard the door open. All three of them looked up and at each other, thinking for a moment that one of them had gotten up and gone somewhere, but they were all there.

"Who in the world could that be?" Mara asked them.

Eddie shrugged. "I don't know."

The door opened. Willow looked up at the doorway to the kitchen, they all did. There was a girl. She looked a little confused. Her eyes were green, her hair was red, her expression was confused, but also hard and determined. Willow smiled at her, obviously liking the idea of a new friend. Eddie found himself smiling as well. As much as he loved Willow and Mara, it'd be nice to talk to someone else, someone _new_.

"Hello!" Willow smiled. "Take a seat!"

The girl stood rooted to her spot for a moment, before taking a seat next to Eddie. She spoke, "Um... I found the way back home. Fabian and Amber did, I mean."

Eddie's heart stopped. Mara stopped buttering her scone. She talked to them as if she knew them. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly. "We are home."

"Our real home." the girl said. Eddie stared at the girl. Was this girl from where her was from? He couldn't look too eager and too interested in the girl who may be from home. The others must have caught on to this as well because they all went back to eating as if they didn't have a care in the world.

"So what's your name?" Eddie asked.

The girl looked angry at him when she said that. "Is that a joke?"

"I don't think so," Eddie said truthfully. He truly had a hard time remembering what exactly a joke was. He did joke sometimes he thought, but he wasn't really sure if he was doing it right because when he did, sometimes the other girls got mad. She was staring at Eddie, and then she was staring at Mara, and then she went back to staring at Eddie.

"You don't remember me?" she asked finally.

Eddie gulped choosing his words correctly. "Should I?"

 _Should I know you? Should I remember you?_

"Yes!" Red screamed startling Eddie a bit.

"Well..." Eddie said. "I don't. Sorry."

The girl looked heartbroken. It wasn't a look he liked on her face.

"Could you remind me?" Eddie said. "My name is Eddie." Although he knew there was a good chance that-

"I know your name!" the girl yelled at him. She looked at him and the others. "You're Eddie! And you're Mara and you're Willow!"

So that confirmed their names. "Well then we're at a disadvantage, because I haven't the slightest clue who you are." Mara said. Eddie could see what she was doing. Mara was trying to tell the girl. They didn't know anything.

"Patricia!" the girl finally told them. Patricia. Eddie nodded. It suited her.

"Nice to meet you Patricia." Willow smiled politely. Eddie could see Patricia's mind working. Then she came to a conclusion, one she did not like.

"Do you remember... anything?" Patricia asked.

"Of course we do." Mara answered. Eddie stared at her, why would she lie?

"What's the first thing you remember?" Patricia asked.

"Walking in here." Mara said. Okay, that was definitely not a lie. Patricia's jaw dropped.

"You mean an _hour ago_?" Patricia asked. Eddie and Willow and Mara all stared at the girl, now _they_ were confused.

"That was six months ago." Eddie said slowly. The look on her face was pure surprise, which worried Eddie. "Are you sure _you_ remember everything?"

When Patricia didn't answer, Willow began to explain. "The three of us walked into this house. We went exploring a bit, and finally I believe we didn't like it here." Quickly she covered herself, "Dunno why."

"We tried to leave but the door wouldn't open." Mara said. "We were stuck here."

"You seem like awful happy prisoners." Patricia said. Maybe they had gotten too good at pretending to be happy.

"This isn't a prison." Eddie said quickly. "It just took some getting used to."

He decided to beef it up some more.

"But this place is truly amazing. You can do anything."

"Except leave apparently." Patricia answered. Eddie was worried, she shouldn't keep talking like this...

"We can leave," Willow told her. "We just couldn't that first day, We can go anywhere we want, just not... not..."

The four doors. Willow said something about it before she forgot. It was their only clue.

"Wherever we came from." Mara finished.

"We think that's where we wanted to go the first day." Eddie said.

Patricia stared at them with an unreadable expression, before getting up and saying, "Well we'll figure out whatever the hell is wrong with you later, right now we're going back."

Eddie watched her leave. Mara turned towards them excitedly. "Do you think she's really from where we're from? Do you think she can... uh... help us?"

Help us escape she means.

Eddie shook his head. "She came the same way we did. I doubt she can figure out what all three of us couldn't. If anything she may have just broken the door and we can't leave again."

Mara scowled and followed Patricia. "What the hell?" the girl said as she attempted to force the door open. Mara's heart sank, but she made sure she didn't look like it.

"That's what happened with us the first day as well." Mara said quietly. "We can hope that the door starts working again tomorrow. Then we can go wherever we want."

"I'd like to go home."

 _Join the club._


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **Door 3**

 **One Year ago**

 **Day 1**

It took exactly two seconds for Mick, KT and Nina to realize they had been wrong. Wherever they were, it was not home. It took one hour for Mick to lose his shit after trying the door repeatedly. It took twenty minutes to convince him not to knock the door down.

 **Day 4**

Mick was positive his stomach was growling. They were weak, they were tired, they were defeated. KT was looking out the window. Nina was laying down. They were in Anubis House. It was unrecognizable. They stayed downstairs because they were afraid going upstairs would cause the entire second floor to crash down. It was hardly staying up by itself, no need for their weight to make it worse.

"Hey, who's that?" KT said pointing out the window. Mick and Nina went over to her as some people came by. On was walking with a sack on his shoulder. The other one was on a horse. He had black stuff all over his face. The man with the sack looked fearful, his hands up.

"Maybe we can ask them for help." Nina said right before watching with horror as an one of them shot an arrow at the guy right in the neck and he fell down. The man on the horse ran off somewhere as if he hadn't just ended someone's life. They stared at the sight, trying to figure out what they just witnessed.

"He had food." Nina noticed the apples coming out of his sack. Slowly she went towards the door.

"Nina," Mick stopped her. "Don't be stupid."

"If we don't die with arrows in our necks we'll die from dehydration and starvation." Nina pointed out. She inched out, scanned the area, and ran to the body. Just as she was about to grab the sack, she heard someone next to her. A person, who had a bow and arrow. Nina's heart hammered, Mick was positioned to run and protect her, KT was hardly breathing. The person snatched the sack from her. They looked inside and gave her one apple, some nuts, and berries, and some water. Whatever else was inside the sack she kept for herself and she ran away. Nina stared at getting farther away, before scrambling to her feet and into Anubis House giving the apple to Mick, the nuts to KT and keeping the berries for herself.

 **Day 10**

They found the old warehouse. It hadn't been touched. It looked more stable than the house. Mick used an old knife he stole from the Anubis House kitchen and was messing with the back wall. "What are you doing?" KT asked.

"When I first came back here I was going to write 'Help Me'." Mick admitted. "But I decided to mark how many days we've been here. I'm pretty sure it's been ten days. I've counted the sunsets."

"Hey, we'll get out of here okay?" Nina assured them. "We will."

Mick nodded and laid down. The night got cold, and the three moved closer together.

 **Day 35**

People. Lots of people, running. KT was the only one awake to hear it. She slipped away and peaked out into the woods. She followed the people, they were moving so fast they didn't even notice her as she ran with them. She watched them run until finally another group of people, ones with similar markings on their faces as the man they saw a month ago, came into sight. They expected the others, which surprised them. Then fighting, so much fighting.

With horror, KT saw an arrow come right to her. Someone grabbed her wrist and pulled away, but the arrow swiped her cheek. "Are you crazy?" Mick said angrily. KT whimpered, sucking her teeth. It stung.

"How'd you know I was here?" KT asked trying desperately to stop the blood from running down her face.

"I saw you leave and I followed. Nina's going to wake up either to none of us, or to you being all bloody and she's going to freak out."

Nina did freak out when she woke up and saw that KT's face was bloody and demanded an explanation.

"I just wondered where they were going." KT said with a wince as Nina cleaned her off.. "What do you think is going on?"

"I don't know but I don't want any part in it." Nina said. "Whatever war their having, it's theirs. Not ours, we're just here surviving until we can get back."

The other two agreed.

 **Day 98**

They had gotten good at getting food, and not wiping themselves with poison ivy. Mick was getting antsy. "Weren't they supposed to come back for us?" Mick asked.

"Maybe they're stuck like us." Nina said.

"Well at least they're stuck at home." Mick growled.

"Who do you think made it?" KT asked. "I think it was Willow and Mara and Eddie. Willow said she felt good vibes coming from the door, I remember. I trust her instinct. Well I should have."

"It was probably Fabian." Nina said and Mick agreed.

"Yeah Fabian, Amber, and Patricia." Mick said.

"But maybe we really were being stupid, and it was the obvious door. Maybe Joy, Alfie and Jerome were right and the voice really was just trying to freak us out so we'd choose the wrong door." Nina thought.

"Well, it worked." KT sighed letting her head fall on the hardwood floors.

 **Day 100**

"I can't do this." Mick said throwing the knife to the side just as he was about to draw the 100th tally. He started breathing heavily and finally he just ran out.

It took four hours to find him, and when he did his shirt was ripped, his head was bruised, and he lost a shoe. His eyes were swollen and red and he looked down. All he said was, "I tripped."

 **Day 128**

Mick and Nina watched KT sleep, leaning on each other. They were using their body heat for warmth. Mick wrapped his arms around Nina and she leaned her head on him.

 **Day 158**

"I don't know how much I can stay in here eating berries and nuts." KT said carving into the back wall. "I don't know how much more of my sanity can survive more days like these."

"Then let's leave." Nina said.

Mick and KT stared at her. "And go where?" KT asked.

"Anywhere away from here." Nina said. "We'll spend today gathering supplies and we'll leave tonight. We'll never have to come back."

 **Day 172**

The idea was a good one. It just didn't work. KT laid on the ground. They had been walking, hoping they'd find _something_ for ten days. They ran out of supplies incredibly fast. It was extremely hot. Nina and Mick were somewhere close. They had passed out. At least she thinks they did.

She closed her eyes and welcomed death as a way out of this hell.

 **Day 174**

Mick blinked and looked around. He thought he died. Or say, he thought he was going to die when he last had consciousness. Now he felt like he was dying. He didn't know where he was. Something wet was on his forehead. A person, a blurry person, stood over him.

"Drink." they said. He stared at the water. His tongue felt like sand but he didn't exactly want to take a random drink from a stranger.

"It's ok, Mick." KT's voice said from somewhere. "It's just water."

Slowly he took a sip of water, feeling his headache creep away. Next she held out berries.

"Eat." the person said. "All of you, eat."

"I've never seen these berries before." Nina said.

"Eat." The person said again. Mick took a berry and couldn't help but smile from the flavor.

"I feel dizzy." KT said, and as she said it, Mick realized the room was spinning for him as well.

"You went several days without food and a few days without water." Came the voice again, a lot more echoey. "You're dehydrated."

Mick didn't remember much more. He had weird dreams about talking animals.

He woke up much later. The only light came from the moon. He saw Nina and KT sleeping.

The moon outlined a person in front of him. Mara. Mick sat up quickly. "Did you find the door? Did you come here to save us?"

Mara put a finger to her lips. "You can trust the people here."

Mick blinked. "What?"

"You can trust them." she said again.

 **Day 188**

It took Nina a little while to figure out that the berries were what was causing her hallucinations. From there it didn't take long to figure out that the people were manipulating her and Mick and KT though she didn't know why.

She ran. She didn't have time to wake the other two up, but she'd come back for them.

 **Day 189**

When Mick woke up he gasped. The woman who had been helping him laid dead and bloody on the floor. An older woman was in there looking mournfully at the body. He knew who she was. She was their leader. Anajah. Mick looked around. KT was there but Nina was not.

"Where's Nina?" Mick asked immediately. The woman turned to him.

"I don't know." Anajah said. "She's fled, and she's killed two of my people."

Mick looked down at the body again. "No way, she'd never do that."

Anajah looked at him for a long time. "Why would I lie."

Mick stared at the bloody body.

 **Day 228**

Nina told herself she'd go back for her friends in two days. That was before she got chased by some large animal, lost her shoes in thick mud, and fell down a very steep hill. The hill was so steep and so high she couldn't climb it. She thought back to her old home. At home, the hill was called Death's Drop and it lead to a creek. Here the creek was dried out. She had to be very far away from Anubis, because Death's Drop was a bit of a drive away from school. She wasn't even sure how she got there.

She had to keep walking until the hills stopped being so steep and she could climb up to Penelope's Garden. That was what the Meadow was called, it was a little closer to the school. It had warmed up a lot. It had to be around June or July. She'd know for sure if she looked at the wall. When she finally reached Penelope's Garden it looked a lot different. It looked dead. There were people there as well. They looked sad.

A woman spotted her, and held a blade to her neck. "Who are you?"

Tears spilled out of Nina's eyes. "My name is Nina. Please just kill me."

The woman stared at Nina and lowered her blade.

"I've lost everything." Nina cried. The woman got even closer, stepping on grass that crunched.

"So have I." she said. "They set our meadow on fire. They burned our sklonište and they've ruined us."

Nina looked around at the dead plants and ashes. "I know where you can stay. It's not very big, but I believe you may make use of it."

 **Day 230**

She was back in the warehouse. Maya was grateful, and welcomed Nina. She provided Nina with food, water, and gave her fur to sleep on. Nina stared at the back wall. Who in the world could have continued the counting?

 **Day 238**

Nina didn't know when she decided to help the rebels, but it was probably after thinking of her friends and what was being done to them.

 **Day 279**

 **KT & Mick**

"They've come back!" a woman said coming to Anajah. She rushed outside. It was so late in the night, it was hard to see in front of them without torches, like the pobunjenik trupe had. Mick and KT followed Anajah out to see chaos. The two sides were fighting each other.

Someone attacked Mick, nearly beheading him. His neck bled freely and he punched the attacker, sending him down.

"MICK!" KT said helping Mick with the bleeding. He was groaning, he fell to his knees. "What the hell is wrong with these people?" Then there was screaming and suddenly there was bright orange light in front of them. A koliba, went up in flames. Women and children ran out screaming, but it collapsed before they could all get out. People tried to save them, pulling out their loved ones who were bloody and burnt. On the other side of the flames was Nina. There was a dead man at her feet. She was covered in blood. In one hand was a torch, in the other was a bloody knife. Her eyes met theirs, before she ran back with the rest of them

 **Day 279**

 **Nina**

The plan was to attack at night while they were sleeping. Maya had been teaching Nina to fight now for weeks, and deemed her ready.

Predictably their arrival caused chaos, they expected nothing less. But things got out of hand. Nina stood with a torch, when a man attacked her. She tried to fight him off, and dropped her torch. When he kicked her the wind was knocked out of her. He stood over her with a spear and brought it down, she rolled to the side, the blade catching her hair. Breathing rapidly as the man removed the spear from the earth ready to plunge it again, she took her own knife and quickly sliced his stomach. Blood fell onto her just before he did. She did what she had been trying to avoid. If he wasn't dead yet he would be soon. But she realized it was either him or her. Dazed, she pushed him off of her. She looked for her torch, and found it in the hands of an older woman. She knew her to be Anajah.

It was so fast, she hardly understood what happened until it happened. Anajah set fire to the hut, and then threw the torch at Nina. Luckily Nina caught it by reflex of something being thrown at her, but quickly dropped it when it burned part of her hair and her hand. Afraid of setting something else on fire, she picked it up again with the other hand and held the cold blade to the burnt one, which gave her some relief. The flame on the torch was low, starting to go out. She watched the small home collapse, and then she saw them For the first time in weeks, she saw KT and Mick. They looked horrified. Nina knew what they were thinking, but she couldn't really set them straight with the truth. With their looks showing their feelings clearly, she couldn't bare to look at them anymore, and ran.

 **Day 281**

Seeing the heartbreak on the civilians and on Anajah was enough for KT and Mick to decide to help. Anajah looked relieved.

 **Day 328**

The face to face meeting Nina had with KT and Mick was not what she expected. Especially because she could hardly see their faces.

They were angry. They wouldn't listen to her. But at least they looked guilty when they threw her down the well.

 **Day 330**

Nina just got lucky. Apparently they do a big cell spring when they can. She happened to be in there just a couple days before one of them. Some people died down in the well.

 **Day 340**

Nina was a gatherer. Winter would be coming soon. The trees were almost bare, their leaves were on the ground. Nina guessed based on the back wall of the warehouse that it was around October, which meant it has been almost a year since they came here.

On the other side, KT helped with healing. Mick helped with hunting, which he got the hang of very quickly.

But all three of them fought when needed for battle.

 **Day 357**

Nina held her sword tightly and cut the man's knees so he crumpled down. It was her go to move, so she didn't have to kill but she was sure they couldn't get up again any time soon.

The man Mick was fighting was overpowering him, until KT stabbed him in the back. They exchanged looks. Neither wanted to kill.

Nina avoided Mick and KT, and they avoided her as well. But they all constantly looked out for them to make sure they were okay. Mick once thought about throwing his blade at the man who had almost gotten the best of Nina, but Nina was strong and didn't need his help.

 **Day 365**

Word was the Tribe was coming to attack them in their shelter, the warehouse.

If their army was planning a sneak attack on theirs, Nina wondered how Anajah twisted this into making Mick and KT think she and her army were the victims. Nina crouched down in the overgrown grass as they looked out for The Tribe. When Elyon, who was in the trees, gave her signal they'd attack. It had to be very quiet. Which was why Nina couldn't understand who was walking so incredibly loud. She looked to her side, and had to stop her heart from falling out of her chest. It looked like... It couldn't actually be... Fabian?

She saw out of her peripheral that the signal was given, so she did all she could as the first arrows were shot.

"GET DOWN!" she yelled.

Fabian looked shocked but fell down just as an arrow went over her head. The battle began but she was only worried about Fabian. She crawled low under the arrows and spears, avoiding getting trampled on by her fellow fighters. She reached for Fabian's wrist and pulled him away back to the warehouse for safety.

"Stay down." She whispered as they got out of the fighting zone. It took a little while to lead him to the warehouse, especially because he was _slow_.

When they _finally_ got there, she turned around and his face fell. She couldn't imagine why, she thought maybe he'd be happy to see her, until she realized how she must look to him. Her head was bleeding a bit from falling on the way to battle.

"Nina..." he said sadly. "What happened?"

What hadn't happened. They got roped up into their drama. She stared at her ex. He looked exactly how he did in her memories. Down to the last detail. Same hair, same clothes, as if no time had passed. She was beginning to wonder if he was even real. Finally, he answered his question. "I was caught in a fighting zone like you, but no one was there to tell me to get down."

He just kept staring at Nina as if she were a broken doll, and she got annoyed.

"How did you get here?" Nina asked, she sort of figured since there was no way out, the way in was closed off as well. She found her lighter and lit a torch. She couldn't manage to make fire out of nature, it was just so lucky that Mick had brought a lighter, and then accidently left it for her to use.

"I went through the third door." he said as if it were simple.

"I'm guessing your door was the correct one?"

Fabian nodded.

"And you came here?" she asked. His response was another nod. She scowled. She doubted he'd be able to get back. "That was dumb of you."

"I wanted to get you. And Mick and KT, where are they?" Fabian asked. Nina should have known he'd ask about them. She couldn't look at him, so she began to wash her face.

"Last I saw them was a week ago." Nina said. She doubted they'd even been told about the attack that was supposed to happen today.

"A week ago?" Fabian asked. "It's only been like an hour."

Nina's eyebrows rose. An hour, yeah she wished. "I suppose time moves faster here than it does back in the other world."

"Well are they okay?" Fabian asked. "Did you separate as soon as you got here?"

"Physically I'm sure they're in a much better shape than I am. Mentally... I can't speak on." Nina said. She could speak on it. They'd made them think of her as a monster, and as the rebels as savages in order to get more help with fighting and any other ways they'd be of service. "It's been a year since we went through the door."

"A- A year?" Fabian stuttered. Nina nodded.

"And when we first got here, we were very much together." Nina said closed her eyes slowly, pushing away the threat of tears. "I'm going to show you something."

She lead him to the back of the warehouse and put the torch close to it, close enough that he could see clearly but far enough that it wouldn't be a fire hazard. She showed him the year. She felt it told their story, at least a portion of it."

"Mick started it after the tenth day. But then he was really upset when we had been here for 100 days, and he quit keeping count. So KT continued. Someone kept doing it while I was away for a while," Nina pointed from 158-228. "Don't know who. I do it now, since Mick and KT aren't here anymore." Nina put the last talley of the year in.

"Where'd they go?" Fabian asked.

Nina stared at 279 talley. "It's been a long year, Fabian."


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Door 4**

 **Two Years ago**

 **Day 1**

Jerome went in first. As soon as he saw that the door they choose was not the right door, he tried to go back. "Don't let the door close!"

But it was too late. They were stuck. The walls and the floors were an unfriendly white. Alfie, ever hungry, first tried to go to the kitchen. There was no kitchen. Just one large room that was meant for... who knows. Fighting or something.

"But aren't there usually mats on the floor for that?" Joy asked. "So people don't hurt themselves?"

They shrugged. Jerome went to where his room was supposed to be. There was a room... sort of. It was white as well. With a bed. There were about four of those squeezed into the space that the two boy rooms usually were.

Just as they were about to venture up the steps, a man came down. They couldn't see his face because it was covered by glasses and a bowler hat.

"Ahh, the prototypes." he called them.

"Who are you?" Joy asked. He smiled.

"You may call me, for now, The Commander."

 **Day 3**

When they were told they'd be learning all different kinds of fighting techniques, they thought it was pretty cool. They couldn't find a way out, and they hoped their friends would free them soon. In the meantime, free asskicking classes didn't sound so bad. They weren't learning from Ming-húa, their instructor, because they were told to by 'The Commander'.

"Who is the guy anyway?" Jerome had asked before. Why would they listen to him?

They got the hang of it fast enough.

 **Day 8**

Learning kung-fu, boxing, karate and everything else was cool for a little while but they missed home.

One day, The Commander came to them after they ate sandwiches in the training room. Alfie wondered where they made the sandwiches.

"I'm impressed. You've shown great improvement." he said. They rolled their eyes. They weren't _doing_ it for him. "But I want to see your best feature, the reason I bought you."

Jerome raised his eyebrows. "Bought-"

With an earsplitting sound, the bullet went into Jerome's skull. Alfie and Joy screamed as Jerome's body became lifeless. The Commander didn't flinch, and shot a bullet each into Joy and Alfie as well.

Jerome didn't even realize what happened. One second he was looking at the bowler hat, then he thought his head was going to explode, then he was on the floor with no pain at all. He looked over and yelped, standing up. There was Joy and Alfie with blank expressions, wide eyes, and a bullet in their heads. But the bullet was slowly coming out of their heads, as if something was pushing them from the inside and the hole was healing. Joy woke up, then Alfie.

"Excellent." The Commander smiled.

 **Day 10**

They had come up with every ludicrous explanation for what happened no short of alien abduction. But they finally had to settle with the truth after Joy bled out through her stomach, and woke up totally fine.

Somehow they were dying and coming back. Which made for many more questions.

 **Day 14**

"Maybe we're not human." Alfie finally suggested. Joy and Jerome rolled their eyes. "No really, remember what he said. He bought us. He called us prototypes. Maybe in this world... we're not human. We're some kind of... manmade... something."

"A door where you live but you don't..." Jerome remembered the riddle thing.

 **Day 28**

Jerome and Joy had been able to find comfort in each other. Being in the world brought them together. They had been growing closer back home as well. Joy cried to him in the training room, letting out her fears that they'd never find a way back home. Jerome moved Joy's hair out of her eyes and kissed her. Alfie looked away, thinking of Amber.

 **Day 38**

The Commander came in to see all three of them sitting on the ground. Joy and Jerome were leaning on each other while she had a thumb war with Alfie.

"What are you doing?" The Commander asked. "Get up and train!"

"What for?" Joy groaned. "What are we training for? Why are we here? I don't want to train anymore."

"Yeah, we're done." Jerome said. The Commander stared at them. Maybe if they could see more of his face, they'd be able to see just how angry he really was. He left, and they thought that was the end of it. He came back an hour or so later with a baseball bat.

"You know what's great about you guys never dying permanently?" He asked. They looked up, startled by the bat. "I can do whatever I have to in order to convince you, and I'll still have you as weapons!"

"Weapons for what?" Jerome stood up angrily, nearly knocking Joy over. The Commander swung the bat at Jerome's head and he went down.

"First rule, don't ask questions." He said. Joy and Alfie stood to defend them, but The Commander simply swung again, hitting Joy's knee and Alfie's back. He left them there to suffer for hours, before putting bullets in their heads again.

 **Day 57**

"You need to tell him." Alfie said as he and Joy watched Jerome. They were upstairs for the first time. Target practice. That was where the girl's room should have been.

"I can't." she said.

"You have to, or I will." Alfie said. Joy bit her lip.

 **Day 58**

"Jerome I have to tell you something." Joy said during lunch. Alfie made himself scarce, or as scarce as possible. "When we first started to hang out, I didn't think I'd ever think of you in any way other than... y'know... Jerome."

Jerome smiled. "Likewise."

Joy let out a shaky voice. "You need to know the truth. I... Mara and I..."

Jerome watched her with curiosity.

"We devised a plan to get back at you. You... You would fall for me, and I would break your heart." Joy finally got out. Jerome replayed the words in his head.

"So... It was all fake?" he asked finally. Joy shook her head.

"No, not all of it. I... I began to-" Jerome stood up and walked out. Joy began to tear up. She glared at Alfie.

"Thank you, Alfie." with no hint of sincerity.

 **Day 67**

After Jerome realized Alfie knew, Jerome got angry with him. He realized he had no business being angry at him. When he went into Alfie's room, he didn't expect Joy to be in there. He didn't expect Alfie to be in there kissing Joy.

 **Day 69**

Alfie and Jerome were sparing for Ming. It was their toughest fight yet. Joy watched with a lump in her throat. Finally, Jerome swiped a knife and put it to Alfie's throat. Ming was incredibly entertained.

"FINISH IT!" Ming yelled. Jerome and Alfie stared at each other. Alfie gulped, feeling the knife's blade on his throat. But Jerome's arm went limp, and Alfie kicked him away. Jerome dropped the knife and they continued sparing, much to Ming's disappointment.

 **Day 71**

"I have a job for you." The Commander said. "You are going to hunt this person down, get the money he owes me, and come back. Real simple. If he doesn't have the money, kill him."

"No way!" came Alfie and Jerome's immediate answer.

"We'll do it, sir." Joy said. The boys gaped at her. The Commander handed her the pictures with an appreciation. When he was out of earshot she turned to the boys. "We're getting out of here."

The Commander watched them leave, and handed Jerome the keys.

 **Day 72**

They didn't know where they were driving, but they had been driving for a long time. The tension in the car was unbearable.

 **Day 75**

He found them.

 **Day 76**

When Joy woke up, she was somewhere chained up. Alfie and Jerome were next to her and she gasped. Jerome was bruised and Alfie was bloody. The Commander was in front of them. He smiled at her. "I wanted you to be awake for this, but you just would not wake up."

Joy pulled on her restraints.

"I thought I'd have to put an alarm clock to your head or something." he said. "But now that you're awake we can begin."

He pulled out what she knew to be a kukri knife approached her. "I'm getting really tired of the disobedience here." He pressed the knife to her temple and traced it down to her chin, slowly. She screamed every second, which made the boys groan. "I think it's time to teach you a lesson."

 **Day 79**

Every part of him was bruised, bloodied, or broken. He didn't have any tears left, he couldn't even scream anymore. "Okay," Alfie said hoarsely. "I will do anything you ask of me."

Alfie was broken. And that, broke Jerome and Joy.

"I'll do anything." Joy pleaded. "Please."

Jerome grunted, "I'll do whatever you ask just make it stop."

The Commander put bullets in every one of their heads.

 **Day 80**

Jerome woke up, no pain on his body. He was in his bed. He jumped up, ran out of his room, and collided with two bodies.

They just laid there, hugging each other, crying, apologizing, forgiving.

 **Day 97**

They put their all into training now, it wasn't just an activity. They knew what they risked when they didn't do what they were told. Ming was impressed with their determination.

The Commander gave them a job. He looked them all in the eye when he gave them the keys.

They got in the car, and drove to where they were told. They saw their target, the same one from before, and followed him in. Luckily, he was able to give them the money, saying had they come any earlier he wouldn't have had it.

They grimaced. They were supposed to come earlier.

 **Day 124**

"Finish it!" Ming yelled, like he did every time he trained with them. The Commander was watching as well this time. Alfie was in a position where he could easily snap Joy's neck. But let go.

The Commander came over and touched Alfie's shoulder. Alfie flinched. "Good job."

Alfie smiled slightly.

"But I believe you were told to finish it." he said calmly. He kicked the side of Alfie's knee and Alfie fell hard to the ground with a loud shout. The Commander handed Joy the knife. "Now, finish it."

Joy gulped and took the knife. Alfie nodded, and she took the neck of the blade and plunged it into his chest.

 **Day 145**

They've been lucky. They've worked three jobs and they were able to let them all go without any deaths. But not this time.

Her name was Mandy, and she was asleep in her home when they came through her window. She pulled out a gun and threatened to call the police. When they mentioned their boss, fear came over her face and she shot a bullet through Jerome's head.

Joy quickly got the gun out of Mandy's hand and held it pointing at Mandy threateningly. Jerome stood up, and fear came over her face as Jerome got up and wiped blood off of his forehead.

"I think I'm starting to get used to being shot in the head." Jerome said groggily as if just waking up. "The pain that is. It's quick"

"Listen Mandy, all you have to do is give us the money you owe him and it's all over. We can go home and sleep," Joy said. She realized she'd called the training center home. Who knows when that white nightmare became home. "You can sleep easily here..."

"Although I can't imagine why you would want to." Jerome scrunched up his nose at the mess.

Mandy looked at the three teenagers. "I don't have it."

Alfie's heart hammered. "You have to have it."

"Does it look like I have it?" Mandy yelled, but shrunk down again.

They looked at each other. "I can't." Joy said. "I can't do it."

"We have to." Jerome said Mandy watched them, looking around for an escape. Joy walked out handing the gun to Alfie. He was really good at hitting the target. Jerome held Mandy and Alfie held the gun up.

She started screaming and tried to get out of Jerome's grasp, until Alfie pulled the trigger.

 **Day 190**

They were excused from training while renovations were being made.

 **Day 257**

They had become trophies.

Sometimes when The Commander had clients, he brought them to their home. He let the people observe them train with the new one sided window. It was unspoken, but someone always has to die while people are watching them. So they can see their 'best feature'. That day it was Joy. Alfie snapped her neck.

 **Day 289**

Adam Napier

39

Married

Two Kids

2,500£

They took him out of his house so his kids wouldn't find their dad's body on their ground.

 **Day 348**

Terry May

24

No family

No home

3,000£

Joy did it. She knew she'd have to at some point, and at least this way, she was putting the girl out of her misery.

 **Day 365**

"Happy anniversary." Joy said tipping her bottle of water up. The boys tipped their bottles and they all took a drink.

 **Day 395**

"Do you think we're the only ones who are stuck in our door?" Joy asked one night. Sometimes they all laid in one room. Today it was Joy's. Jerome shrugged dismissively.

"Maybe." he said.

"What do you think they're doing? You know, if they made it back home?" Joy asked.

"Well... They're probably not dying." Alfie muttered. Joy glared at them.

"Seriously?." Joy spat at him.

Jerome groaned and sat up. "Well, they would all be in Uni by now right?"

Joy smiled. "Mara's doing great. Acing all of her classes."

"Nina studying Egyptian History." Alfie said. "Actually she's teaching the class."

Joy and Jerome laughed.

 **Day 411**

"You don't think they've forgotten us do you?" Joy asked them. Jerome scoffed.

"Patricia would never forget you." Jerome answered.

 **Day 429**

She faced Jerome. He was smirking. She probably had a similar look on her face. Somewhere along the way, they began to find the fighting fun. Maybe because it got their frustrations out. Or maybe they were becoming the machines that The Commander wanted them to be. They spared for a while, but Jerome was just humoring her.

"Fight back!" Joy yelled.

Jerome shook his head laughing as he blocked all of Joy's punches. Finally having enough, Joy did the butterfly kick she had just perfected and knocked Jerome down, and put a foot on his neck.

"Finish it!" Alfie yelled. She pushed down, blocking his air, until she saw the familiar blank look on Jerome's face.

"His body will recover, but will his ego?" Joy asked. Alfie laughed and high fived Joy, just for him to flip her. She landed on the ground with a thump. She laughed and kicked him in the balls. He crumbled to the floor.

 **Day 489**

Maurice King

56

Married

No kids

4,700£

It was fast. They asked. "Do you have the money?" He answered. "No." One bullet to the head.

 **Day 500**

They had specific instructions to make it last long. The Commander said, "He's been avoiding me now for nine years, little bugger."

At first Alfie and Joy were going to have no part in it. But at some point Jerome handed Joy the knife, and she didn't refuse it. Alfie was the one who finished it though.

 **Day 575**

Train. Eat. Train. Sleep. Train. Eat. Train. Sleep. Job.

Train. Eat. Train. Sleep. Train. Eat. Train. Sleep. Job.

Their days were fairly simple.

 **Day 621**

Sometimes they did deliveries, which was a nice way to switch it up. But not often.

 **Day 657**

When The Commander handed Joy the joint and a lighter with a sly smile, she thought it was a joke. But there they were smoking marijuana and laughing at _nothing_.

"No we were abducted by aliens!" Alfie said. "That's how we ended up in the four door room!"

"It was probably Rufus." Jerome said inhaling.

"It was probably my dad." Joy scoffed. It shouldn't have been funny, it should have been tragic, and yet it was hilarious.

 **Day 688**

It became a tradition to smoke before every job. The Commander provided. It loosened them up. But it probably made them look crazy, because now they were sharing conspiracy theories and laughing while they pointed a knife at someone who owed them money and then laughing about it all.

 **Day 702**

Joy knew she was twisted.

He stopped giving them weed. It was making them _too_ loose.

Enjoying fighting was one thing, but she knew she was deeply disturbed and too far gone when she started enjoying the jobs.

But she wasn't the only one. She watched Alfie and Jerome as they messed with the guy, she forgot his name. They were mocking him. It was almost as if the old Jerome and Alfie were back. Teasing and mocking like they used to. Only darker.

"Nice rings." Joy said joining the fun. "How'd you get them?"

The man sputtered and Jerome held his hands down while Joy cut off his fingers. Alfie started talking about he'd once saw someone do that on a tv show and trying to remember what show it was. The man was screaming. The screams didn't affect them anymore.

 **Day 730**

Usually they just killed themselves every time they were uncomfortable with pain, but sometimes they just dealt with it. They felt like it made them stronger.

But Alfie's arm had been killing him, and it was just slowing him down. So when Jerome's hands were around his neck, he didn't do anything about it.

"FIGHT BACK!" Joy yelled.

"Fight back." Jerome repeated. Alfie shook his head.

"Finish it." Joy instructed. Alfie saw Jerome's slight head nod, and it didn't take long before he had finished it.

They heard a gasp and saw the one person they never expected to see.

"Amber?" Jerome asked.

"Is he- is he-" Amber sputtered.

Jerome shook his head not knowing what to say, it was pretty hard to explain.

"You don't understand," Joy began.

Amber had backed herself into a wall. The only way for her to understand is if she saw he was okay.

 _Wake up Alfie, wake up_. Jerome thought.

"I saw it all! I saw it all you, you-"

"Amber?" came Alfie's surprised voice.

 _Finally_.

They watched her as her brain was working trying to piece together what she saw.

"What is happening?" She said in a shaky voice.

"Amber when we first came here, we realized right away we weren't in the right place. We tried to leave, go back and try one of the other doors, but it wouldn't open." Jerome started immediately before she completely freaked out.

"We hoped whoever found the right door would come find us." Joy continued. "We lost hope after a while."

"That's why I'm here!" Amber exclaimed. "Why would you lose hope?"

Alfie shrugged. "We kind of figured after five months-"

"Five months!" Amber shot up. The other three took a step back. "It has not been five months!"

Jerome narrowed her eyes at Amber.

"No..." Jerome said slowly as if speaking too fast and too loud could make Amber combust into flames. "It's been two years."

Amber shook her head. "No. No. No way."

Then it hit Joy, had it been different times?

"How long do you think it's been?" Joy asked.

"I don't know! Less than a day that's for sure, like a class period! A little more I guess. more like lunch time."

Jerome stared at her. _No way._

"You mean it's only been like an hour for you?" Alfie asked.

Amber nodded. "Does that mean time moves faster here?"

"I guess so." Joy scratched her head. She would kill to have only been in this place for an hour.

"Wait! Wait a minute, I just witnessed Alfie _die_ someone tell me what he's doing in front of me talking to me!" Amber yelled. Jerome stepped forward.

"Amber put your hand here." Jerome said moving her hand so it was on his chest in front of the heart. They had hearts, they were somewhat human. But they pumped very slowly. There was no need for it to pump very fast usually. "What do you feel?"

"Nothing."

"Exactly." Jerome said.

"You have... no heart?" Amber asked horrified.

"We have... something." Alfie said. "Because we bleed."

"We can kill ourselves any way possible, we won't die." Joy said. She shivered. She hadn't realized how twisted it was. Well she realized, but she forgot. "I've died every single way, and yet here I am."

Amber shook her head again. "H-How?"

"We're not..." Alfie began."We eat, we sleep, I can feel every prick on my skin and every emotion. But at the end of the day... we're not real. We're not, we're not..."

"We're not human anymore." Joy finished.

"The minute we stepped through the door," Alfie sighed. "We became something else."


	10. Chapter 9

**Part II: Going Home**

 **Chapter 9**

 **Door 1**

They wasted no time now that they had their memories. "You know pretty much the full story." Willow said to Patricia. "We got here, we tried to escape... it didn't work."

"If we go by what you said, time in this world moves quicker in this door than it does back home." Mara began. "And if time moves quicker here, do you suppose it moves quicker in the other doors as well? Did you bring a notebook with you?"

Patricia shook her head. Mara swore under her breath. "Do you have anything? A pen? A sharpie?"

Patricia rummaged through her things, coming up with a sharpie. Mara snatched it and began to write furiously on her arm. "Whatcha up to?" Eddie asked.

"I'm compiling a list of facts." Mara said. "I don't know what's with these marble what's its, but if they begin to take our memories again I'd like to know the basics. I know we have the marbles _now_ but suppose we can't get to them when we need them, or they're confiscated."

"So what's on the list?" Patricia asked.

"I'll show you. Oh I'm running out of room!"

Eddie offered his arm and she grabbed it and quickly began to write on it as well.

By the time she was finished, they each had writing on their arm. In fact, Eddie had writing on two arms.

 _We came from the 4 doors room_

 _The marbles from the attic are supposedly taking our memories_

 _Patricia found home along with Fabian and Amber_

 _She came back for us._

 _6 months = 60 minutes?_

 _Everyone else may already be back home_

 _They may come for us_

 _Others:_

 _\- Jerome_

 _\- Fabian_

 _\- Nina_

 _\- Amber_

 _\- Alfie_

 _\- KT_

 _\- Mick_

 _\- Joy_

 _\- Trudy (house mother)_

 _\- Victor (professional pin dropper)_

 _People who may have done this to us:_

 _Rufus Zeno (an old enemy. Patricia won't give more details)_

 _Unlikely, he's dead? Or trapped?_

 _Senkhara (no details again)_

 _Unlikely, also dead... sort of_

 _Victor_

 _I find unlikely_

 _Mr. Sweet (Eddie says no)_

 _Mrs. Denby_

 _Unlikely... may also be dead... unsure_

 _Any ghost_

 _A teacher maybe_

 _The police_

 _Patricia made sure to add this_

 _For some reason, they want us_ _happy_

"I think this will have to do for now." Mara sighed as everyone rolled down their sleeves. "We may have to go back."

"Oh man, _back_ is where my brain turns to mush." Eddie groaned.

"Not thirty minutes ago we were in that prison, and I had no idea who I was." Willow reflected. "I don't want to go back."

"None of us do." Patricia said. "So I think it's time we find a way out of this crazy place."

* * *

 **Door 3**

Fabian knew if she woke up and he wasn't there, she'd kill him.

He also knew that he had to make it first priority that he got Mick and KT back. They were smart, if he explained to them that they were being manipulated to be used as soldiers, they _should_ understand. This wasn't a sure thing of course, but it was worth a shot. If that didn't work, he'd just have to knock some sense into them.

Small problem with this plan, it was the first time he was walking through this world without Nina. Since he knew his way to the House from the warehouse, this should have been easy. But in this strange parallel universe, everything was overgrown and thicker, and the sun was setting so it was much harder.

He was also very afraid. He had yet to run into any wild animals, but he was sure there were some. The hunters had to hunt something. Plus, he had no weapon or any way to defend himself, which was pretty stupid, but most of the people were out of the warehouse and the weapons were with them.

He jumped at the sound of a bird somewhere flying off, and shivered as the air grew cooler by the second. He stepped in something cool and thick, like chocolate moose. He couldn't see much but something told him it was the huge mud swamp thing that Nina had him trek in, which meant he was going in the correct direction.

It took a while, but he finally got out of the thick of the trees and saw the Anubis House. The village where Mick and KT were most likely sleeping was a little past the house, but there won't be any more trees to walk through so he felt more secure.

He glanced at the house. If he hadn't lived in that house for about six years, it'd be hard to tell it was the same building. Everything about it was old and dead. He looked at the door. Why hadn't it worked, why wasn't he able to get home? Would he be stuck in this door too? Would they die here?

He thought back to when he, Amber and Patricia went through the second door. For some reason the door didn't work then either. But _why_. In the end it opened just as easily as before. Was there some clue as to how to get home within that memory? Perhaps. He'd have to think more about that later, he was on a personal mission.

And he'd rather not stand in one place at a time, not only did he want to keep moving, but he didn't want someone to see him as a threat and decide to put an arrow or something in his head. That would put a damper on plans of returning home.

He started forward again towards the village. He didn't _really_ know how to get there but he had a pretty good idea. The wind picked up and he shivered. It was freezing, and he had no jacket and one shoe. His teeth chattered and he began to miss the warehouse. But he missed home, his real home, even more.

As it got later, it got colder and darker. He could barely see what was in front of him. He feared he get lost on the way there. He squinted ahead, hoping to see the any hint of light from the village, but it was nothing but darkness and the light of the moon in front of him.

"Fabian!"

He turned quickly and could see the outline of Nina coming towards him. His stomach turned and he gulped. As she came closer, he could see her angry face illuminated by the moonlight.

"I should skin you alive." she growled when she reached him. "What the hell do you think you are doing out here this late?"

"Getting our friends!" Fabian yelled. Instantly she hit him over the side of the head and he staggered a bit.

"Since you waltzed into this door I've been worried _sick_." Nina explained. "And it feels like every ten seconds you are doing something stupid!"

"Nina-"

"Whatever dumb thing you plan on doing, wait until it's light out and I'm healthy." Nina pointed back. Fabian looked behind him, and then at Nina.

And he ran away from her, towards the village.

* * *

 **Door 4**

Jerome, Alfie, and Joy got outside just in time to watch Amber start driving. Looking at each other for one more second, they ran after the car that sped off. Joy called out, "There is no way we can catch the car!"

Alfie growled, and increased his speed rapidly. Jerome and Joy looked in surprise as Alfie began to go so fast that his feet were starting to get blurry. Unwilling to leave their friend behind, they ran right after him.

Amber went over what she saw and heard in her head. She'd seen a lot of death over the time she'd went through the fourth door, but Joy, Alfie, and Jerome always came back. She doubted that man, Andrew, would come back. This was their job. They did this every week, sometime twice a week. And they seemed to have no problem with it either. Apparently two years can change a person more than she thought.

Joy and Amber were never the closest friends. Joy always hung out with Patricia and Fabian, while Amber stuck around with Mara and Mick. Plus, she used to think Joy was a nasty piece of work. What she did to Nina a couple years back was horrible and Amber still wasn't over it. Despite this, Amber never could see her just be okay with something like this.

Jerome sliced the man so easily, as if it were like cutting up butter or something. Something that wasn't a human being with a life right in front of him. He was greedy, selfish, and rude but he was never a murderer.

And Alfie, he was one of the sweetest guys Amber had ever met. She knew he had quite the temper at times. Especially when his friends are in danger. But he would never...

Whoever those people were in that room, they weren't her friends. And she had to get far away from them. Even if she didn't know where she was going.

Alfie, Joy, and Jerome had never run so fast.

The world was one giant blur beside them as they kept up speed. They'd never tried anything like this. But they weren't really human. So it made sense that they were able to run faster than humans.

Amber peered in the rearview mirror and nearly jumped at what she saw. Somehow, the others were right behind her. Not caring that the light in front of her was red, she pushed hard on the gas and sped forward. She began to find it hard to see as tears blurred her vision. She swerved out of an accident and heard cars honk behind her.

"Pull yourself together, Amber." she said to herself while tears ran down her face. But she couldn't. She couldn't believe her friends would do this.

She couldn't believe her friends would do this.

She couldn't believe her friends would do this without a good reason.

Slowly, Amber pulled over. It was only a second before friends caught up to her. Amber got out of the car and looked at them with tears in her eyes. "I don't know what I saw back there but you three better have a good explanation."

Joy felt tears well up in her eyes as well. She saw the way Amber looked at them. Like they were monsters. Joy was having trouble breathing, and she heard a high pitched beeping in her ears. Tears ran down her face, they were hotter than normal and burnt her eyes. Amber started staring at them all.

"What's wrong you guys?" she asked in a low, terrified voice. Joy looked at Jerome and Alfie, who had blood running down their faces like tears. Jerome was doubled over and Alfie was having a coughing fit. Then, while gasping for air, Joy fell to the ground.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **Door 1**

It turned out pretending to not have any memories was very difficult. Mara, Willow, and Eddie struggled to act as though nothing had changed since they went out the door and received their marbles. Patricia and Eddie tried to pretend Eddie had no memory of their relationship. Mara wrote down what was on their arms into a notebook. As soon as she had everything written, they all washed their arms. Willow tried not to let her misery be shown on the outside, She missed her friends, and it was starting to bring her down emotionally.

But their memories were slowly leaving them again. At one point, Mara approached Patricia in a casual way and handed her a book. "You should try it, it's a great read."

With that she walked away, and Patricia stared after her. Later that day when Patricia opened the book, there was a note in it. _We have to return the marbles. Soon they'll notice they're gone._

Patricia knew she was right, but she was attached to the marbles. In her bag were her memories. Even if they kept slipping away from her mind, at least they were in her possession. But she knew Mara had a point. Quickly, She scribbled on a note, _noon tomorrow, put the marbles back, I will distract them._

The next time Patricia saw Eddie, she slipped him the note and noticed him put it in his pocket.

When noon came the next day, he was staring at her with a worried expression. But he didn't say anything to her that made her think he was about to stop her from doing what they both knew she was going to do. She kind of wished he would. She knew she had to, but whatever they did to her really messed her up.

She caught Eddie's eye. And then she did her fake freak out. Mara and Willow were startled by her sudden outburst, but Mara looked like she was catching on and looked at Eddie, who was slipping away. She saw the men come to drag her away, and when she was fighting them off she wasn't acting anymore. She broke out of their grasp and ran away to the door, but they got her again.

They dragged her downstairs to the cellar and to a secret compartment behind a bookshelf. She almost expected RFS's study again but instead it looked like some kind of doctor's office. They strapped her down and put some kind of mask on her face. She was forced to inhale something that smelt like spray paint. She fully expected to pass out, especially with the spots in her vision, but instead the spots began to go away and they took the mask off.

She blinked as the men with the masks stared at her. One of them stepped towards her. "You're not enjoying your time here Patricia?"

The voice was familiar and sent a chill down her spine.

"My, my. I thought you learned after last time." he said. He took his mask off, and her heart plummeted into her stomach.

"No... you're dead..." she whispered. "We saw you..."

Rufus Zeno smiled. "You know I always have a few tricks up my sleeve. My friends here brought me back."

"Why?"

"Because..." he said in that calm controlled voice that haunted her nightmares. "If you're not happy, they can make you very _unhappy_. And I know what you're thinking now. _How could they even know about you?_ They've got your memories Patricia. They know what you fear. I'm flattered by the way." Patricia's heart hammered and despite herself, her eyes started burning with the warning of tears. It'd been a long time since she cried.

"We found your friends." Rufus said in a pleasant voice. "You can let her go, we're going to go on a walk."

The restraints on Patricia's arm let up and Rufus forcefully pulled her to her feet. He pulled her back up the stairs and into the living room. All of her friends were there. Joy, Nina, Alfie, Jerome, Mick, KT, Amber and Fabian were all there along with Mara and Willow. They all looked happy and waved to her as if nothing was wrong.

"H-How?"

Rufus ignored her. "I found your boyfriend sneaking up the stairs." The lump in her throat grew three sizes. "He had the marbles. He's getting his punishment. But now, we have to ensure that you and your friends never get your memories back."

He let go of her and pulled out an hourglass with red marbles. Everyone watched as he poured the marbles on the floor, and began to stomp on them. Each time, Rufus stomped and more tears spilled out of his eyes despite her desperate attempt to stop them. Each stomp made her heart ache so much it caused her physical pain. Each crunch nearly caused her legs to buckle. "As long as I'm here charge, you will never-" _stomp._ "ever-" _stomp._ "remember-" _stomp._ "a thing" _stomp._ " **again**!" _stomp, stomp, stomp..._

* * *

 **Door 3**

It was the only time he had ever run away from Nina. He had no idea if she was chasing after him or not. Probably not, she was much faster than he was. He knew she'd be mad, perhaps unforgiving, but he had to get her and KT and Mick out of this world. If she was angry at him but back home, he felt that was better than being here.

But going now was probably not smart. He had no weapon and no real plan. He stopped running and took a moment to reflect on his stupidity. His desperation to get his friends to safety lead him to putting himself in danger. He looked forward, he couldn't even see anything. He'd have to wait and plan things out better later.

He began to walk back to where Nina was, hoping she would maybe allow him to sleep in the warehouse or if she'd be so mad she'd make him leave.

An arrow went right past his ear and he gasped and fell to the ground. He squinted into the darkness and saw the faint outline of a man. He saw the outline prepare to shoot him again and he ran. That one missed him again but the third one got him in the shoulder. He cried out and fell to the ground. He thanked his luck it was pitch dark. He doubted the man would miss if he could see. His eyes brimmed with tears when he pulled the arrow out and continued to ran. This was one of the worst pains he'd ever felt. Whoever the man was, he was right behind Fabian.

But then he heard the sound of another pair of feet running, and suddenly he thought he was doomed. Until he realized the running was coming from the other direction, and it was Nina. He watched as she ran past him, avoided an arrow, and began to fight with the outline. They both had knives out, and saw that the outline had cut Nina somewhere but he couldn't see where. She kept fighting as if nothing happened, and eventually the man let out a strained moan and fell down. She took something from him and ran past Fabian. Stunned for a second, he quickly followed her.

They didn't stop until they got outside the warehouse. "We should just stay out here a while." Nina said.

"Why?"

"Because they're all sleeping." Nina said. "And I have to tend to your wound."

Fabian had forgotten all about the arrow that went through his shoulder, and figured it was due to adrenaline. When that settled down, he'd be in a lot of pain again.

She took him to a small pond, where she began to wash out the wound."You saved me again." he said.

"I know." she said. "I heard you scream and I couldn't stop myself. Even though it seems you're _trying_ not to survive."

Fabian winced both from her words and the pain that was now beginning to come back. "I could say the same for you."

Nina actually laughed. "I know, if I keep running after you, I won't survive long either." Nina sighed. "Maybe I should teach you to how to fight."

Fabian nodded. "Yes, please. I could actually be of help to you."

"I should have done that first." Nina sighed. "It's hard to be out here and not know how to defend yourself. That's asking to be hurt. Or worse."

They didn't say anything for a while as Nina tended to his wound. She soon began to wash off her arm, which had been cut in the fight. Finally, Fabian said, "That's not what I meant by the way. When I said you're not trying to survive."

"What did you mean then?" Nina asked.

"You're not trying to get out of here." he said. "You've given up."

Nina met his eyes. "It's futile."

Fabian shook his head. "I think if I could get out of the second door, our door to home, we should be able to get out of this one. I'm only trying to get us out of here."

Nina was quiet for a while, but eventually said. "If you stop doing stupid things, I'll work with you to try and get out of here."

Fabian smiled. "Deal."

* * *

 **Door 4**

They all woke up around the same time in the back of the car. "What happened?" Joy asked groggily.

"I'd like to know that." Amber said. She'd taken the time to wipe their faces and eyes.

Jerome sat up straighter. "We'd never done anything like that. We probably overheated or short circuited ourselves or something."

"Don't speak like that." Amber spat. "Like you're robots or cyborgs or-"

"But aren't we?" Alfie asked.

"I said stop."

An uncomfortable silence filled the car, which reminded Joy to ask, "Where are we driving to."

"Well your little blood show freaked me out so much I thought you had broken your 'come back to life' thing and I was taking you back to The Commander to fix you. But now that you're fine I can pull over and get some answers from you."

"No don't!" all three shouted.

"We'll give you answers but don't pull over. Keep driving." Joy said. Amber sighed.

"Fine."

Alfie scratched his head and noticed both Jerome and Joy were looking at him. "Um, well, the thing is..."

He looked at the others.

"We've never gotten it really confirmed but we're pretty sure The Commander is some kind of drug dealer or mob boss or both or something." Alfie said. "We just know he's very rich and very powerful and..."

"And a lot of people owe him money." Joy finished.

A chill went through Amber. She'd guessed as much but it made her uncomfortable to hear it. Even though she wanted the truth, she found herself putting off hearing it. "Um, am I going the right way? I was mostly just using my memory from when we drove here."

"Yeah, just make a left at the next light." Jerome said. He looked over to Alfie and Joy, who still looked a little pale."Are you guys feeling okay?"

They nodded.

Amber took a deep breath and asked her next question. "Why are you helping him?"

"Because we don't have a choice." Joy said. "He's a scary man and... we know what happens if we don't do what he says."

Something told Amber not to ask. Something told her to just leave it there and believe them. But she couldn't help it. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she asked, "What happens?"

She didn't get an immediate answer. She looked up into the rearview mirror and saw her friends in a way she never expected to. They looked so vulnerable and weak and young. They were huddled close together and shaking.

"Never mind." she said. "Is there any way to... not?"

"Not really." Jerome said. "It's our sole purpose."

Amber looked back at them. "Why aren't you more freaked out? Why are you just okay with it?"

"We're not!" Joy assured her. Jerome and Alfie both looked at her. They knew they shouldn't lie to Amber. Especially right now. "We... weren't."

"What changed then?" Amber asked.

Jerome shrugged. "We did."

"We've wondered about it ourselves." Joy said. "I think we've just become the things we were created to be in this world."

Amber frowned. "I don't like it."

"That's a good thing." Jerome said. "You still have some human left in you."

"Stop, you're still human." Amber insisted. "You're just brainwashed."

"Maybe so." Alfie sighed. "Either way, it's hard to feel bad about all of the killing when death doesn't mean the same thing to you as it does to everyone else."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Door 1**

Eddie ran up the steps, knowing he had very little time. He opened the door to the attic, and was momentarily stunned. The big empty hour glasses seemed to shimmer a bit. Each one had trimming around them that were the colors of the marbles. Getting back into action, Eddie emptied the contents of the bag into the correct hour glasses. They'd separated the marbles by the pockets of the bag, which they had to do since they were mostly clear.

As scary thought came, that he'd forget which marbles went into which hour glass, and he went even faster.

When he was finished, he ran down the stairs, and watched them take Patricia. He wanted to stop it, he wanted to do something. But he was powerless, a feeling he didn't like very much at all.

It was really very cruel and clever that they took away the memory of whatever they did to them. One may think, _doesn't it defeat the purpose if you don't know what's being done to you?_ Not at all. When left with no memory of what's done, a feeling of paranoia, terror, and hopelessness stays behind. And one of the worst parts is not even knowing why. And the fact that they can take away the memories with such ease is just a reminder of how much power they have.

Shortly after the incident, the others came to visit Patricia while she was in bed. They sat on the edge of her bed, but Patricia didn't acknowledge them in the slightest. They had all been taken away before, but back to back as Patricia had been. She had last gone there just four days ago.

"Ok?" Willow asked.

Patricia shook her head.

Mara bit the inside of her cheek, and then said, "Would you rather we left?"

She shook her head.

"Do you wanna go, y'know, out the door? To a valley or..." Eddie trailed off.

She nodded.

"Where would you like to go?" Willow grinned. Patricia looked right at Willow, into her eyes, and said nothing. In that one look, she told her all that she was trying to say but could say out loud. The only place she wanted to go was home.

No one knew what to do. She didn't want to be left alone but she didn't seem to want to talk or leave her room either. So they all just decided to sit on the carpeted floors and keep her company, doing so while remaining silent. An hour later after Patricia was asleep, Eddie and Mara left out the door so they could strategize how to get out. Willow stayed and kept Patricia company.

"I remember now." she whispered. "I know you know that, but..."

Willow took a deep breath and got her thoughts together, while Patricia's eyes blinked open.

"I remember all of the people." Willow continued. "I remember our friends. Again, I know you know this... but... I just can't believe that I forgot them."

Patricia's first groggy thoughts were that she didn't even know _what_ Willow was saying. All sound that happened when she first woke up was noise in her foggy brain. She blinked up at the girl, who was still speaking and possibly unaware of the other girl's consciousness returning.

"Remember when you told me about them, and you told me they were geniuses?" Willow grinned widely. "I miss them so much. What if... what if we never see... them again..."

Patricia's eyes widened as Willow's words finally settled in and she understood.

"I don't think I could handle- whemah!"

Patricia had slapped a hand over Willow's mouth and pulled her down more forcefully than she'd meant to, so that her mouth was by Willow's ear. She spoke quietly, but still forcefully. "I understand this is hard for you. I understand that you miss everyone very much, we all do. I understand that you're desperate to get out your frustrations. I understand that you feel powerless and hopeless right now. I know you're angry, and sad, and sick of this place. And I know you want nothing more but to throw something, hit something, or more. Or maybe just break down in tears for a little while."

Willow listened, frozen like ice, with wide eyes and open ears listening to every word.

"But this is our life right now, and it sucks. It's hard. It's unfair. But it's our life right now. They have the power, whoever or wherever they are. They are in charged. They can screw with your brain, and they will not hesitate to do so. And if you want to get out of here with your sanity, you're going to have to accept that. Because I reckon there's only so much of their tricks they can perform on us before we're cracked. While you're here, you're going to have to have the best time of your life. Our old life, it does not exist. It's a memory, it's not real now. Not while we're here. Understand?"

Willow nodded under Patricia's grasp. She let go of the smaller girl, who backed away and stared at Patricia as if it were her first time seeing her ever. They locked eyes, and Willow looked down right terrified. For a moment, Patricia worried she'd been too harsh. But then, Willow put up a grin so wide and happy, that Patricia was nearly convinced. "I'm going to get some scones. Would you like for me to bring you one?"

* * *

 **Door 3**

Fabian and Nina were in Penelope's garden. At home it was a flush beautiful meadow with flower beds and sometimes little animals. Here it was dead and crunchy, but it was also very cold. Even so, Fabian didn't think the place could look so dead even with thin layers of snow.

"It was burnt sometime over the year." Nina said. "It's how I met the rebellion. They'd lost people, food, their area of shelter... it was really bad."

Fabian shivered from both the cold and her words. "No jackets here?"

Nina shrugged. "Gross animal skins."

Fabian nodded. "I've been meaning to ask, what animal skin have I been laying on?"

"Lots of wild boar. There's a lot of lynxes around here, and there may be a pack of wolves or two. I once saw a raccoon, that was terrifying." Nina said. "The animals that have habitats in the UK are the animals that roam around here, so there's not that much. If we were in America, we'd have to deal with a lot more."

"Like what?"

"We have wolves too. Um panthers, a _lot_ of bears, wild dogs, cougars, bobcats, alligators," she gasped and looked wide eyed. "Have you ever seen a moose? I haven't but they're _huge_. If I ended up in a future 'after earth' type dimension and there was a _moose_ walking around, I wouldn't know what to do."

Fabina chuckled, but shivered again. Nina smiled. "When we start, you'll warm up."

Fabian bounced a bit and cracked his neck. "What first then?"

Nina smiled. "Attack me."

Fabian's eyebrows lifted slowly. "I'm not going to attack you."

"Don't worry. You're not strong enough to actually hurt me." Nina reassured him.

"Thanks," Fabian deadpanned. "That's a sure way to make me feel good about myself."

Nina chuckled. "I just mean you don't know how to fight, you're not going to be able to do any damage."

"Keep going, my ego really needed a boost."

"Just-"

Fabian ran at her, and for a second she didn't move. Then, fast as light, she ducked out of the way and then gave him a light smack on the cheek. He stumbled back, not in pain, but in surprise.

"When you ran at me you left your face, neck, and chest wide open. You had your arms out from the start so I could tell exactly what you were doing, and you weren't even checking to see what my next move was going to be." Nina listed off. "Try again, keep your arms up. And... don't... tackle me. Swing at me."

Fabian moved his overgrown fringe off his forehead and put his arms up. He swung, and she quickly blocked it with her own arm. When he didn't do anything she said, 'keep going'. He tried again with his other arm, unknowingly leaving his middle wide open. Nina pushed him away hard, and he stumbled but kept upright. Nina was at him again in a second, and he rushed to block his face. Nina flipped him over and he landed on the ground with a loud _thump_. She landed on top of him, holding his hands down with her left arm and her right foot, used her body weight to keep his legs down, and held a stick to his throat as if it were a knife.

Fabian coughed quietly, "And now I'm dead?"

"And now you're dead." Nina smiled and got off of him. Fabian groaned.

"Don't leave yet, it was just getting good." he mumbled. Nina snorted and Fabian looked surprised that she heard him. He smiled, despite his cheeks gaining color.

He stood up, and Nina surprised him by wrapping her arms around him. At first he tensed up, thinking it was another test or more training. But then he warmed up to it and wrapped his arms around her too. They hadn't done anything like this in a very long time.

Nina spoke quietly, "Thanks for coming to get us."

Fabian scoffed. "Of course. Me, Patricia, and Amber knew what we had to do."

Nina suddenly pulled back with wide eyes. "Patricia and Amber? Where are they?"

Fabian shrugged sadly. "They went after the others, they're either back home or... stuck as well."

Nina gulped. "What do you think is behind the other doors?"

"No idea. Hopefully nothing too bad." Fabian sighed. "We have to get out of here."

Nina nodded. "We can go to find KT and Mick sometime in the next week. We can try talking to them one more time."

Fabian smiled. "Good, maybe if we try to talk to them and reason with them, we'll be able to get some sense into them."

Nina nodded. "Yeah, well until then, arms up."

* * *

 **Door 4**

Alfie sat in his room with used, black matches in a pile around him. He listened to the chimes of the clock as a new hour rolled around. He took another match, lit it, and put it against his arm. He felt the burn send heat throughout his arm and he gritted his teeth. Then he shook the flame away, dropped it to the floor with the others, and examined all the burns on his arms... legs... torso...

They all did this at some point. The pain made them feel human. He even once saw Amber continuously snap a rubber band on her wrist until it was red and welty. She didn't even seem to notice she was doing it until Joy said something to her.

Alfie didn't know what they all did, but he knew they did it. He suspected Jerome just went straight for a knife, which made him sick. Joy might use thumbtacks or something. She always had small punctures on her hands, and he wondered how many more of them he would see if he looked at her arms.

The Commander called them all to him, and he pulled his sleeves down, wincing as the fabric brushed against his burnt arms. They were lined up in front of him. He had two manila folders in his hands this time. He gave one to Jerome and one to Amber.

"Two jobs in one night?" Joy asked uncertainly.

"You three are going to take Mike Vander. Blonde is going to have Polly Feldspar." he said. "I have a second car for her."

Amber's heart beat quickly. "I could go with Amber- Blonde." Alfie said quickly.

The Commander shook his head, and handed them each a set of keys. He left without another word. Amber held the key and the folder in shaky arms, and looked at her friends with wide eyes.

"It's going to be okay." Joy said quietly as they walked outside. Jerome took her folder and looked through it as Joy spoke. "We're pretty sure the cars are bugged. So this is what you're going to do. You're going to go to the woman, and stay there. When we're finished, we'll go there and do the job, okay?"

"On foot." Jerome said. "So he won't even know we left our post." Amber nodded.

She watched them get into the car and drive away. She looked around for the other car, and started towards her job.

The neighborhood she drove to was quiet. She parked outside Feldspar's house and waited quietly. She wondered how long the other job would take. She absentmindedly rubbed on her burning wrist. She looked out the window, as if expecting to see her friends. Instead she saw Polly Feldspar. She was going into her house.

Amber didn't know what made her do it, but she got out of the car. She approached Polly at her door, who jumped when she saw Amber. "You here for money?" she asked quietly. Amber nodded and wondered how the woman knew. "Thought so. He usually doesn't send you alone though does he?"

"Do you have it or not?" Amber said more forcefully than she meant.

"Built for business, that's right. Give me a minute, I'll get your money."

Amber stopped the woman from going in with a strong grip, and silently wondered what had come over her. "I'm not to let you out of my sight."

Polly looked down at her arm, and shakily said, "Right..."

Amber followed Polly inside and up the stairs into an office. "In cash."

Polly rolled her eyes. "Yeah I know, I know, here."

Amber was handed a small pouch. She opened it and silently counted the money. Then she smiled as a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

"If everyone just _had_ what was owed, it'd make things a lot easier everyone involved." she said. Polly nodded, looking as if she wanted to tell Amber to get out, but knew she didn't have a position of power at the moment. Amber left, put the money in the car, and waited again for her friends. When time went on and there was no sign of them, she got worried.

Quickly, on impulse again, she knocked on Polly Feldspar's door. Polly jumped at the sight of Amber.

"It's all there!"

"I know." Amber said. "Do you have a computer?"

After looking up Mike Vander, Amber drove to his address. He lived in an apartment on the other side of town. When she got there she gasped.

A 'dead' Jerome on hanging out of the window, Alfie was nowhere to be seen. Joy had Mike Vander held captive in one arm and her other hand held a hammer. Vander was desperately trying to get away, but with one loud crack, Joy connected the head of the hammer to Mike's temple. There was no way the man was still alive, but Joy didn't stop. She swung again, blood splattering over her face and her arms as she continued to hit him, over and over again.

"Joy!" Amber called. The smaller girl stopped and looked up. Her whole face was dripping in blood that wasn't hers. She gulped and dropped the hammer.

She wiped her face, doing nothing but smearing it on her, and chuckled nervously. "I got a little carried away."


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **Door 1**

"When can we get our memories back?" Willow asked. Usually when they went somewhere, it was outside with beautiful scenery. This time, they were in a cozy sitting room with plush seating.

"Not for a bit." Mara said.

"Can't remember why we're here in this world." Eddie mumbled.

Mara sighed. "I'm not sure we ever really knew. I mean, I doubt it but I can't be sure because I can't... I can't remember."

"Did we write it down?" Patricia asked. Mara looked through the notebook and shook her head. "Nope. We theorized who may have brought us but never why we're here."

Patricia said. "Well what's stopping us?"

Eddie pointed to his head. "We're missing pieces. Can't get the full picture."

Willow shrugged. "We can try."

Mara yawned. All of the acting- acting happy, acting like she had no memory- was exhausting. She pulled out her pen and went to a blank page. "Okay, so what do we know?"

"Wherever the location of the four door room is, we likely didn't go there by our own free will." Eddie put out.

"So we were kidnapped?" Willow asked.

Patricia looked thoughtful. "I think I was once kidnapped. Don't remember the details."

Mara wrote down _kidnapped_.

Patricia continued to think. "Wasn't someone else kidnapped?"

"Well someone was certainly missing one year." Mara remembered. "Happy... Cheery.."

"I feel none of those things." Eddie said. Mara shook her head.

"Her name." she flipped and looked at the list of names on the page. "Joy!" she exclaimed. _Joy was kidnapped._ Mara wrote in her notes. "Why was Joy kidnapped?"

Patricia shrugged. "Cause she was the one?"

"The One _what_?" Willow prompted.

Patricia groaned loudly and viciously. "I don't know! The one! The One they wanted! The important one! The-"

"Chosen one!" Eddie exclaimed. "She was the Chosen One!"

"Right!" Patricia exclaimed.

Mara looked confused. "I definitely have no memory of that."

Patricia continued. "But she also _wasn't_! The Chosen One that is. It was... was... the American!"

Eddie paused. "Me?"

Patricia shook her head. "A girl."

"KT?" Willow suggested."

"Nina! It had to be Nina, we didn't even know KT back then!" Mara exclaimed. "Joy was kidnapped because they thought she was the Chosen One but it turned out to be Nina!"

She quickly scribbled this into her notes. Willow suddenly looked a little more lively than usual. "Maybe we do have the puzzle pieces! They're just scattered between us! What one person forgot, another person knows!"

"What else?" Mara said eagerly.

"You're not the Chosen One but you're something. I... I don't know what but you're _something_." Patricia said to Eddie. Eddie shrugged and looked at the other two. They looked just as lost.

Mara tapped her pen anxiously. "More. _More_."

Willow began humming. They all stared at her and then she got it. "There is just one thing you need, in the place of rest you will succeed!"

Patricia and Mara stared at her incredulously. "What does _that_ mean?"

Eddie looked like someone hit him in the head with a frying pan. "Joy, Patricia-you, and the other two! They're... they're... I don't know what they are but they're-"

"Descendants of the exhibition!" Patricia slapped her head. And the guy... the guy who owned the house, name?"

"Frobisher-Smyth?" Willow suggested as Mara was quickly writing things down.

Eddie looked excited. "KT's great grandpa!"

Mara looked at the list. "So if Joy was kidnapped because _she_ was something, and half of the people on the list are some things too, maybe we've all been kidnapped because we're all something!"

She wrote down what she said and stared at it.

"It's not a great hypothesis." She said. "But it's..."

"Something." Willow replied.

* * *

 **Door 3**

Mick was on his knees violently vomiting for the third time that week. KT rubbed his back soothingly. They'd been mostly eating berries since they've come into door 3, especially for the past week as there had been very little meat, so the vomit was a horrible red color which made it look like blood. Mick's throat screamed in agony and he blinked away tears.

"'You'll get used to it.'" Mick recalled what Anajah said every time this happened, which was often. "'You're just adjusting is all'. How long is it supposed to take us to adjust? We've been here for a year!"

He wiped his mouth and looked at KT, who looked pale and sick herself. "Is it just me, or is it getting worse?"

Mick laid down on the grass far away from his mess and sighed. "Are we doing the right thing?"

KT sat next to Mick on the grass. "They'll all die if we don't help them."

"They'll probably die either way." Mick pointed out. "When we came, both sides were pretty even. We keep losing people."

KT frowned. "And they probably shouldn't lose anymore."

Mick didn't say anything for a while.

"How do you feel about it?" KT asked. "If this is wrong, you should be able to know it."

"All I know is my head hurts, I'm always dizzy, and I really hate puking." Mick said. "How do _you_ feel about it?"

"I..." KT began. "I think that our intentions are good. We just want to help Anajah. I mean, she nursed us back to..." she looked at the vile that came from Mick's body. "Health."

"Fabian came here KT. Fabian's _here_. My best friend, who I thought I'd never see again. He came to rescue us."

"And we threw him down a well." KT said slowly. Her breathing became heavier and, fast as lightning, she turned and retched up anything she had left in her stomach. After catching her breath, coughing a bit, and wiping her mouth she sat back down. "My head was particularly fuzzy that day."

"Well... we weren't going to starve him. That's why we took watch the day he escaped. We said we wouldn't get involved but look at us." Mick said. "I mean, it's not just us, Nina too."

"They're feeding her false information." KT said. "She burnt down a hut!"

Mick frowned. "I just don't understand why."

"Because she's been fooled." KT said.

They stayed quiet for a while. "Still remember Anajah's speech."

The speech Anaja gave after that bloody day had been mostly in their native language. While they didn't know what she was saying, the last three lines stayed with them.

"Oni su otišli predaleko," KT remembered. "Ubijene žene i djeca bez krivnje."

"Pridružite mi braćo i sestre, pa njihova smrt će biti osvećen." Mick continued.

"Krv mora imati krv." They said together. Mick chuckled. "It was quite a speech. Got us involved and we didn't even know what she was saying."

KT let out a wet sob and Mick turned to her just as a tear rolled off of her cheek. "I miss home, Mick. I want to go home."

Someone responded, but it wasn't Mick. "That's why we're here."

They looked up, and standing there was Fabian and Nina.

* * *

 **Door 4**

It was obvious The Commander knew Amber didn't work on the jobs. It was why he made her go alone. Not always, but sometimes. Whenever it happened, they stuck to the original plan. Amber sat tight, and they showed up sooner or later to handle it for her.

Joy still invaded her thoughts all of the time. She's been there now for nearly two months. She's seen death in every single way, and most of them had been at the hands of her friends. But Joy was on another level that day. She had this look in here eye... it was haunting. Two weeks later, she still thought about it.

But the guilty, broken look that replaced it after she saw how Amber looked at her was even worse. So Amber made an effort to try to show her that she wasn't freaked by what she saw, even though she was. She really, _really_ was.

So there she was, waiting outside of a small house closer to the city than she would have liked. Each house was connected to the other with no space. She could see the client and potential victim moving in the upstairs room by the window. She was not thinking about Joy. She was _not_ thinking about Joy. She was not thinking about Joy's face when-

A knock on the window startled her. She rolled it down and Joy stared back at her. "Okay?"

Amber nodded. "Just... do your job."

Joy nodded and walked towards the house. Jerome and Alfie were right behind her. The way they walked up so casually, it was almost as if nothing were wrong. Joy knocked on the door, and they waited. Amber saw as their client... Mr. Allen Hickory, walked down the steps. As soon as he got a glimpse of what was on the other side of the door, he tried to slam it on them, but Jerome knocked it open so hard Amber thought it would fly off the hinges. Allen ran and they followed. Apart from the occasional bump coming from inside, there was no sound.

Until Joy flew out of the window, shattering glass everywhere, fell three stories and landed on the pavement. Her head hit the step with an ugly sounding crack and Amber knew they'd be down one for a while.

They seemed to be having more trouble with Allen, which was understandable as Allen was very big. Why would the Commander give her this job alone? He probably knew what they'd been doing when he gave her a job separately from the others. She saw in the window that Jerome was fighting him and then was thrown against the wall. Finally, Amber heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. No, several gunshots. She counted ten.

Then, radio silence. _Where's Alfie_? Amber thought. And her question was answered when both Allen and Alfie came tumbling out the door, rolling past Joy and tumbling through her pool of blood. Allen tried to make a run for it, with a phone in his hand. When Alfie stood up Amber gasped. He was covered in blood from head to toe, like in that old _Carrie_ movie Amber watched once. He was walking with a limp, and couldn't run after Allen as Allen got in his car. There was something sticking out of Alfie's back that he tried desperately to reach for but couldn't get.

Suddenly he fell to his knees and Amber saw that it was a knife in his back. His head turned and his eyes met Amber's just as he fell over, and remained still.

Amber looked at the scene. Joy was down, Alfie was down, she couldn't see Jerome but she guessed he was down too. Allen was starting his car.

"Wake up." she said to herself. "Someone wake up."

She glanced at the window. Jerome would wake up. They take gunshots all the time.

But not ten. He'd have to heal every single one. Joy lost a lot of blood, and she would have to replenish it. Alfie couldn't heal if the knife was still in his back.

Amber thought desperately, maybe this one time they can let him go. It was one person, The Commander would understand... right?

" _He's a scary man"_ Joy's words came back in her mind. _"We know what happens if we don't do what he says."_

" _What happens?"_

They had looked so weak, scared... tortured.

Amber acted quickly, getting the gun out of the glove box. Allen Hickory pulled off towards town as Amber got out of her car. She ran to the front of the car and Allen pressed on the brakes so hard, she could see the track of the tires on the ground. She went around to the front, forced open the door and pointed the gun at his head.

He looked her up and down, likely wondering who she was and where she came from. However, all of The Commanders' workers looked the same. They were adolescents clad in dark with hard looks on their faces. Allen seemed to be weighing his options. He could press gas and accelerate right there and then, and if he were fast enough he would make it. If Amber was faster, well it was self-explanatory.

Long seconds ticked by, and Amber watched him make a decision. Four sounds followed this decision. The roar of an engine. The crack of a gun. The impact of a crash. And a low strangled sob.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Door 1**

"We're leaving." Eddie said forcefully. The other three girls raised their eyebrows at him. They were in a meadow, because it was their favorite place to go.

"Oh yeah? How?" Patricia asked.

Eddie looked at the door. "That door opens anywhere we want to go. Even if we can't manage the four door room, or our real home, we can think up a city and escape."

Willow looked brightly. "We'll never come back?"

"No matter where we end up, we'll never go back." Eddie said.

Patricia smiled. "No more pretending. No more being held prisoner."

"We can take the marbles!" Mara said. "We'll take them with us, pack everything up. Have our memories permanently."

Eddie nodded but frowned. "If we leave, though, we won't get to see any of our friends and family again."

Tense silence fell over them. "Never?" Willow asked.

"Willow, if we escape somewhere, and we come back to try and see them again, we'll be trapped. I doubt they'd let us go out ever again. So we'd have to never see them again."

Willow sniffed. "Read their names again?"

Mara smiled and nodded pulling out her notebook. "Jerome, Fabian, Nina, Amber, Alfie, KT, Mick, Joy, Trudy and Victor."

Willow sighed contently. "Okay. When are we doing this?"

"Tonight." Eddie said. "I know it's soon but I-I can't take another day."

"It's perfect." Patricia said quickly. "I can't take another day as well."

"We'll have to pack tonight." Mara said. "Who's in charge of marbles?"

"Me." Willow said. "I'm in charge of marbles. I'm doing it."

Eddie looked like he wanted to object, but said, "Scream if anything happens."

"We can't really do this the way we've been doing it." Patricia said. "We _have_ to get the big bag if we're bringing everything, so they'll know something's up. We can't distract them with a tantrum because if someone's taken they'll be too weak tonight. We just have to be fast, and ready for everything."

The other three nodded. "Agreed." Mara said.

"Okay, we have a plan. Let's go." Eddie said getting up.

"Wait... incase this all goes sour... I just wanted you guys to know I think you're all really brave." Patricia said. "I've been here for two weeks exactly, and I'm already going crazy. You did this for six and a half months. You guys are amazing."

They smiled at her. "So are you." Eddie said.

"Yeah," Willow agreed. "It's not like you walked into a meadow."

"You were a beacon of light when you came." Mara said. "A sign of hope."

Patricia sighed. "Well I _hope_ we can pull this off."

They walked into the house determined. Looking at each other one last time, they raced to the bedrooms. Patricia, Eddie, and Mara took the largest bag, while Willow took the duffel bag and raced to the attic.

As fast as they could go, the three grabbed all of the clothes they could get their hands on and ran downstairs. Soon, they ran to kitchen and gathered all the food they could. Willow was up the steps in seconds, and her breath caught slightly at the familiar marbles trapped in the hourglasses. Knowing she had no time to take them out individually, she placed each hourglass in the bag and ran downstairs.

Or at least she tried to. But standing in the doorway... was one of the masked men.

* * *

 **Door 3**

 **(8 days earlier than chapter 12)**

Fabian sat outside the warehouse with achy shoulders. According to Nina, he was much better today when they were training. Nina was leaning on him, sleeping. She'd fallen asleep while they were talking. Fabian was brainstorming, when he heard a sound to his right. Nina went rigid, and Fabian could tell she was awake. Quietly as possible, they drew their weapons.

A young man came into the moonlight. He was tall, skinny, and by the looks of it, tired. "Dom!" he cried out pointing at the warehouse.

"Who are you?" Nina asked quietly.

He stared at her. Nina wondered if he spoke English.

"I'm going to call you Dom for now." she said. She began to not feel as stiff as before, so Fabian relaxed a little bit. She began talking to herself. "He has no weapons, nothing on him. I doubt he's from the tribe."

She stood up. "Do you want to come inside?" She pointed at the warehouse. He nodded and followed her in. Fabian decided to stay outside. He was brainstorming.

He's been through door 3 for twenty two days now. He was back home for an hour.

He paused.

And hour exactly. When they tried to open the doors before to get back and save their friends, it wouldn't work. He didn't know the exact time, he didn't bother to look at his watch. But he knew it was about an hour. And the door didn't open for several minutes and then it _magically did_.

Time. It has to do with time. Sixty minutes back home equals a year here. His head was spinning but he tried to keep track of his thoughts. He didn't want to have to spend another year in this place. Maybe he didn't have to.

What was something that sixty minutes had in common with 365 days? They're not both even numbers or odd numbers. They _were_ both multiples of five. He'd been here 22 days. Maybe when five minutes hits in the real world, that's when they'd be able to leave. And if they missed that deadline, they'd have to wait for five more minutes. And five minutes there has to be thirty days here.

The thirty day mark. They'd be able to leave on the thirty day mark, and he hoped he was right. And if he was right, he hoped he could get KT and Mick in time so they wouldn't have to stay there another month.

He went inside to tell Nina. In there with her was Dom and Maya. They were having a conversation in their language, and Nina was watching it unfold. Fabian came up next to Nina. "Understand them?"

Nina looked at him crazily. "Of course not, I only know about ten words in their language and so far they've said none of them."

Soon, Maya directed Dom to a place to rest and came back to Nina and Fabian. Nina asked, "So... What's going on with Dom?"

Maya smiled. "Dom isn't his name. Dom means home. His name is Miloš."

Fabian and Nina looked at Miloš attempting to sleep.

"He says he lived here for several days with his family. He wanted to stay, but they are a nomad group. They were attacked by animals, and he traveled very far for very long to come back here. He liked it here. He liked the carvings on the wall."

Nina's head snapped to the wall where she, Mick, and KT had counted their days here. And where they left and someone else continued.

"He said he thinks they were used to count sunsets, and he wanted to continue the story." Maya finished. Nina looked at Miloš and smiled.

"Thanks, Miloš." she whispered. Maya went back to where she'd been awoken.

Fabian sighed. "I really like Maya."

"Me too." Nina said.

"I hope she'll be okay." Fabian continued. "Because we're not staying much longer."

Nina looked at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean?"

Fabian smiled. "I think I figured out how to get back home.

* * *

 **Door 4**

Amber was crying hysterically in the car. When Alfie, Joy, and Jerome all came to it was nearly twenty minutes later on the side of the road in the car. She couldn't leave them there, what a scene! A car crash, a dead man in it, blood everywhere... it was too much. They couldn't get caught. So despite how shaken she was, she had to pull it together and drive them away from the scene, and then drive the second car to the same area. When they came to, they realized what happened. It didn't take a rocket genius to figure out. And they'd tried so hard to avoid it.

"I can't do this anymore, I can't!" Amber sobbed, now finally able to get out words. "I can't go back to that house and- and-"

Alfie looked at the other two. They looked remarkable. And though the word usually was associated with good things, this was not the case here. While Alfie was drenched in blood, Joy had been laying in a pile of it and an entire side and back of her body was red. Jerome had about eight holes in his clothing, each surrounded by a ring of blood.

"What do we do?" Alfie asked.

Joy bit her lip. "I don't know."

Jerome felt his face get hot and his eyes brim with tears. "There's nothing we can do. The Commander has us locked with an iron fist."

Amber was still sobbing, but she hiccupped and started to say, "You're wrong."

Alfie frowned. "You don't understand-"

"You're wrong." she repeated. "You are the strongest and fastest things on earth in this... dimension. You know about one hundred ways to kill someone. You've been using your abilities every day since you've been here. But you have yet to target the right person."

Amber wiped her face and sat up straight looking each of them in the eye.

"I'm giving you a very important job to do. And then we escape, somehow." Amber said. "You're going to kill The Commander."

She watched Joy visibly gulp.

They split up evenly into the cars. Jerome and Joy in one car, and Alfie and Amber in the other one. Alfie offered to drive, but Amber insisted that she was fine. She wasn't fine, she was horrified. But she needed to be fine, because unlike the other three, she wasn't afraid of The Commander. And when it came down to it, she'd need to be strong for them. She'd need to support them. They needed her.

So she drove. It was better anyway, Alfie looked so horrible at the moment, if someone saw him they'd be pulled over for sure. So he crouched in the back, and Joy did similarly in the other car. When they got back to the house, finally, they huddled around each other.

"How are we supposed to do it?" Jerome asked timidly, in a way Amber had never seen him. She honestly didn't know.

"We have time." Amber said. "We don't die, remember? We'll figure it out."

They trained for the next couple of days. Until they found a way to escape, they'd have to do what they're told. They couldn't just shoot him or slice him. They had a feeling all of the 'accessories' were more like protection. If that hunch was right and they tried shooting him at target practice but it didn't work… things would not go well for them. Amber realized that she had gotten better with a gun, which made her very sick. Days later while they were on a break, The Commander approached them with only one manila folder. Alfie was playing with matches again. "Stop that. I told you not in front of me."

Alfie quickly put the matches away.

"Job today." he said handing the folder to Jerome. "Before you come back, put gas in the car. It's running low."

"Gas?" Alfie said suddenly.

"Yes, it's what you feed the car so it runs." He said mockingly as he walked away.

Alfie looked over at his matches. And then at all of them. "Okay." he said even though The Commander was out of earshot. "Okay. We'll get your gas."


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

 **Door 1**

 **Part 1**

Mara, Eddie, and Patricia heard Willow scream loudly and clearly. They dropped everything and ran to get her, but there were men at every doorway. Looking at her friends, Patricia was desperate. Eddie looked hopeless too. But Mara was working at something.

"I've had many exhilarating riots here." Mara said picking up a lamp on the table. She yanked the cord from the wall and took off the lampshade. "But none like the one I'm about to have."

She threw the lamp at the mirror and both the light, and the mirror itself shattered. Everyone ducked, but Mara was right on action again. She grabbed a long glass shard and held it up with bloody fingers.

"I'm getting out of here one way or another." she said hotly. They advanced at her, but she held the glass up higher and they stopped.

Eddie grabbed the plates on the table. "I never liked these plates."

And he smashed it against the wall and picked up another. This time, he aimed at them. They had to quickly duck. Suddenly, they were throwing everything they could get their hands off to keep the men away.

Willow and the man in front of her briefly shifted their focus from each other to the chaos downstairs. Willow needed to get down there and help them.

"We're getting out of here." She said in a casual tone. "And we're going back home."

"This is your home." he said.

Willow laughed. "Not even close!"

He started walking to her and her heart beat went up double time. When he was right in front of her, she grabbed his mask and ran. She heard him stomping after her, and she was a little slower with the bag, but she skipped steps and leaped down anyway. When she got to the bottom, many things were in front of her. The house was in ruins. Things were shattered on the floor. Eddie was now fighting with one of the masked men. Mara was yelling wildly with bloody hands and and a piece of sharp glass held in one of them. Patricia was continuing to throw things. She was now threatening a chair, as she'd run out of plates, silverware, glasses, vases, and lights.

But Willow couldn't stay in one spot. She looked back and saw a face coming for her. He had large round eyes, a long nose, and a scowl. "GUYS!" Willow yelled, because they had to get out but they were trapped.

The man pushed her into the room with the others. "ENOUGH!"

"You've seen _nothing_ yet!" Patricia shouted out, still holding a chair. "I will be throwing this and it _will_ hit someone. Believe me."

"Why do you want to keep us here? Why do you want us happy all the time?" Mara asked. "W-Who are you?"

The man grinned at her. "You don't understand yet? I want only to _torture_ you. I want to _break_ you in this world where you're living day by day forced to be happy, but really you're _dead inside._ "

Eddie growled. "Well too bad! We're escaping!"

"Where?" the man said. "You really think I don't know what's been going on outside that door? I control everything."

Their hearts stopped.

"You could dream up the largest maze and try to escape through there and I'd still be able to find you and bring you home. There is no way out of here."

"No..." Willow said quietly. "There has to be."

The man cackled. "There isn't."

Then, they heard it. The door opening. The man's smile went down and a voice called out urgently and desperately.

"Patricia! Mara! Willow! Eddie!"

It was so familiar. Mara knew it but she couldn't place it. Neither could Eddie or Patricia, but Willow said a name with a gasp.

"Fabian." she said quietly. Then, "FABIAN!"

* * *

 **Door 3**

Maya smiled sadly at them. "You know if you can't make it home you're always welcome here."

Nina and Fabian smiled as well. Miloš pointed outside. "Sunce! kraj Sunca!"

He'd done this every day since he came when the sun was setting. Nina pulled out her knife to carve into the wall for hopefully the last time. Fabian stopped her.

"Can I do it?" he asked. Nina smiled and nodded. He marked the fifth talley by crossing it over the other four talleys drawn by Nina. When he was done he smiled contently.

"We should get going." It was a lot later than they wanted to leave, but saying goodbye was a lot harder than they thought.

"Doviđenja!" Nina said to anyone who was listening.

"Doviđenja." Fabian repeated. They responded with the like, and Nina and Fabian were off. The walk was never a nice one, but it felt especially long since they were anxious.

"How'd you figure it out?" Nina asked as they walked.

Fabian shrugged. "Everything about the four doors is a riddle. There's always a connection. We just had to find it to get out."

Nina smiled. "You're so smart."

Fabian laughed as they passed the old Anubis House. "It's not horrible here." he said. "I mean, it's cold, I never want to eat a squirrel _again_ , and there's the whole war. But the people back at the warehouse... well. I never _dreamed_ that I could connect with them so much. I don't really have something like that at home. So it was nice."

Nina smiled. "Yeah, it was."

It usually took another fifteen minutes on foot to get to the village. But they found KT and Mick a mile away, laying down. And KT seemed to be... crying?

"I miss home, Mick." she sobbed. "I want to go home."

Nina and Fabian stared at each other. Fabian spoke up. "That's why we're here."

Both of them jumped up into a stance that said they were ready to fight. Nina and Fabian were ready for this, and went into similar stances. They stayed frozen for a while.

"Please don't make this hard." Fabian said. "We don't have much time."

KT looked a bit wobbly, but stayed grounded. "For what?"

Nina smiled. "Fabian found a way back home."

Both pair of eyes went to Fabian with amazement. Fabian quickly said, "I _think_ I found the way back home."

"'Course you have." Mick said rigidly. "You're brilliant, if anyone would find a way back it's you."

"We can't just leave them there." KT said talking about the village. "They need us."

"Is that what you think, or what you've been told?" Nina spat out.

Both KT and Mick narrowed their eyes. "What does that mean?" KT asked.

"You've been fed lies for months." Nina said. KT and Mick looked at each other, aware they just said the same thing about Nina. When they heard a low growl, they at first believed it was Mick. But then they turned to the source. A starving wolf stared at them, his ribs shown under his fur. His teeth bare.

"Oh God." Nina said.

KT turned to Mick. "You hunt."

Mick shook his head. "Not with just a blade, I don't."

"I have a-" Fabian started reaching for his spear, but the sudden movement cause the animal to launch at them. They all ran away for it, farther away from the house. Mick and KT were struggling, as they were dizzy, weak, and had recently regurgitated everything they had in their bodies.

The wolf was getting closer to KT. Her heart beat sounded more like a stampede of animals. She heard the wolf growl right behind her.

"Help me!"

All three turned just in time to see it pounce. Thinking quickly, Fabian took out the spear. "Like dodgeball." he told himself. He aimed, and shot at it. It went right through the wolf's head.

Nina and Mick stared at Fabian with wide eyes. KT was breathing rapidly and screamed. They all went to her and pulled the thing off of her. The animal's claws had gone into her leg. Mick picked her up.

"We need to get her to Anajah."

"She's not going anywhere near that psychopath." Nina said forcefully. Mick snarled at her in a way that reminded her of the wolf.

"You're the one who burnt down-"

Nina shook her head. "I would never. I didn't even like _killing_ in the middle of a _battle_. You know that, and you know that you'd have figured it out a long time ago if you're head wasn't clouded."

KT panted, holding her dripping leg. "How... did you know... our head... ?"

"The berries." Nina said. "They've been feeding them to you to manipulate you. But you know the truth. You have to look past the fog."

"You can trust Nina." Fabian added. KT and Mick looked at each other, and finally KT said.

"I don't... I don't even care anymore... my leg hurts. So take us home... so Trudy can fix me." KT said. "And anyway... we've had our suspicion. And we _do_ trust you. Both of you." Mick nodded. Nina and Fabian smiled, and they ran back to the house. They'd lost a lot of time, but midnight was a ways to go.

When they got there, out of breath, they stared at the door. "I hope I'm right about this."

"Me too." the other three said. Fabian went up first, counted to three, and opened the door.

It wasn't the inside of the broken down house. It was black and dark. He turned back to three ecstatic faces and they ran through the door.

Mick put KT on the cold floor of the four door room as the third door closed behind them. For a moment they just stared at the doors.

"We have to get the others and go back home." KT said weakly.

Fabian nodded. "Yeah. We'll have to do it one door at a time, since last time we split up it... didn't work. Also, don't let the door close behind you. I think we'll only have until midnight in either door."

"Like Cinderella.." KT said groggily.

"KT you'll stay here." Fabian said. KT sniffed and nodded.

"First door first?" Nina asked.

Fabian nodded. Mick waved him on. "Lead the way."

Fabian stepped forward and opened the door. Mick and Nina were right behind him.

* * *

 **Door 1**

 **Part 2**

When he got inside, he saw a mess of things all over the floor. He looked back with wide eyes. Nina and Mick had a similar expression, but waved him on as they held the door open. "Patricia!" he called out. "Mara! Willow! Eddie!"

At first, nothing. Then, "FABIAN!"

It was Willow, and she sounded terrified. Suddenly the doors opened and many men in all black came out. "What are you?"

Fabian didn't know how to answer. "Uh, four door express?"

Fabian had seen a lot of unexpected things. But he _really_ did not expect the man to be knocked forward with the force of a wooden chair. He jumped to the side, and saw his friends huddled up against the wall. The only one who didn't wear a mask was knocked out because of the chair, but the other ones were going for his friends.

Nina looked at Mick. "Got the door?"

"Yeah I got it, go kick ass."

Nina smiled and ran in to help. "Fabian, you have to help me."

Fabian nodded and they both went in the living room. Fabian kicked one of them from behind, and another one turned towards Fabian with his arms stretched out. Fabian smiled and easily ducked out of the way.

"Number one, you left your face, neck, and chest wide open." He said and sent a powerful punch forward into the man's chest. The masked man stumbled back, but came at him again. He had himself covered, but was running at him. Fabian ducked out of the way again. "Number two, I could tell exactly what you were attempting to do."

Finally, Fabian kicked his temple and knocked him down. "And lastly, you weren't even checking to see what my next move was going to be."

Willow, Mara, Patricia and Eddie stared. Nina had now taken down two of the men, and was working on the third. She looked around and saw Mara. Fabian understood, took the broken glass from Mara, who seemed to be in shock, and handed it to Nina. With one swish, she sliced the man's knees and sent him down with a strangled cry. She dropped the shard and it shattered.

"Let's go!" Nian said. Staring at the men on the floor, the three girls and one boy peeled themselves off the wall and followed Fabian and Nina out. They ran out and Mick followed them, letting the door close behind them.

"We have to get the last four now." Fabian said. "I don't know how fast time moves there, we don't want them stuck there."

"Let's go then." Eddie said finally out of his stupor. He was staring at the doors. He had no memory of them past that day, but they did seem familiar. Fabian nodded. Nina, who was closest, ripped open the last door. Her, Mick, Eddie were behind her. Mara and Fabian were close by in case they were needed. When she stepped inside, she was surrounded by flames and smoke.

* * *

 **Door 4**

Joy rolled down her window and stuck her hand out with the manilla folder. "Never again."

She let it go. They hadn't even glanced at what the job was. They went, got gas, and now were on their way back. It was late, soon it'd technically be morning. They pulled up to the house and looked at each other nervously. "Remember," Amber began. "You have the control."

"This whole time, I thought we were just trying to keep safe." Joy said. "But it turns out, were weren't. We were fighting for something."

"What?" Amber asked.

"Well it's simple, isn't it? Our humanities." Joy said. "Simply put. We were fighting for our humanities, and we were losing. Until you came around, of course."

Amber shrugged. "Oh you know, not everyone is as brilliant as me. Don't beat yourself up."

Jerome snorted, and Alfie and Joy laughed. "If we do this, how will we get back home?" Alfie asked.

"We don't." Joy said. They walked forward and stepped inside. Alfie went up the steps outside of The Commander's office. The other three poured gasoline everywhere. The door to the office opened loudly. For once, they didn't flinch at his presence. He spotted Alfie and the matches and looked away as he walked down the steps.

"I told you not to do that in front of me." he said. "And why are you all back so early? What's that _smell_?"

He slipped a bit as he got to the gasoline soaked floor.

"What is this?" he asked. Amber, Jerome and Joy surrounded him. That's when he saw the gasoline containers. Then he looked up at Alfie, who held an unlit match in his hand.

He quickly pulled out a gun and shot Joy in the head. Then, he pointed a gun at each of their heads.

"What are you going to do?" Jerome asked. "Kill us?"

The Commander laughed manically. "You think you can just do this to me? I own you all!"

"You don't!" Alfie shouted. "You can't own us because we are _people_."

"People?" He fired another bullet into Jerome's head and Amber jumped in surprise. "He'll come to perfectly fine in just a few minutes, but you think you're human or something?" Alfie realized he had to be quick. He poured his own tub of gasoline on The Commander's head, who sputtered and moved out of the way. Alfie lit the match, and dropped it.

The Commander was clearly panicking, because he was firing gunshots everywhere and trying to bat away flames. Amber saw through the smoke that one of them hit Alfie. She kicked the gun out of the burning man's hands. He managed to rip off his outer clothes and the hat and was not doused in flames, but he had burns all over his body. It wasn't any use, they were surrounded by flames. He grabbed Amber by the neck. "I'm going to pop the vessels in your neck. You're going to feel every one as I do it. And you'll burn with me, the fire melting your skin off. It will take days before you're fully healed. I may not be able to permanently kill you, but you **will** feel pain."

Joy did a roundhouse kick on The Commander. "But I'm back already."

She saw that Amber was in pain, and quickly grabbed the gun and shot Amber in the head. Jerome was just starting to wake up, as was Alfie, when the door opened.

"Ohhh no." came a voice they thought they'd never hear. "It seems to get worse every door- Guys! Are you there?"

"Nina!" Alfie called out. He was at the top and quickly jumped down.

"We're here to get you back, come on!" came Mick's voice.

Alfie turned to Joy and Jerome. "We can make it past the flames, we just have to be quick."

They all looked at Amber. "If we leave before she comes to, she may not wake up past the doors." Jerome said.

The second hand ticked as it was coming closer to twelve o'clock. The clock went off. _Chime_ "Guys..." Eddie said. "The door's starting to close."

"If the door closes they'll be stuck here." Nina said. "HURRY UP!"

 _Chime_

"Come on Amber." Joy said anxiously.

 _Chime_

 _Chime_

 _Chime_

"HURRY UP THIS DOOR IS CLOSING!"

 _Chime_

The flames began to surround them and thicks cracked and sputtered, and Jerome and Alfie picked Amber up away from them.

 _Chime_

 _Chime_

"Wake up, wake up!" Alfie chanted. "Ambs!"

 _Chime_

 _Chime_

Amber gasped awake, and coughed. As fast as possible, they ran into the flames, feeling the hot flames boil their skin.

 _Chime_

The door was closing, and they ran through it just as they heard the final _Chime_. They sat Amber down, saw their friends, and turned around. And stared at the four doors.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Amber was entirely confused. She remembered Joy's mercy killing, and suddenly she was being carried out of the house and now... Now she was staring at the four doors. She looked back at her friends, well she tried to look back. But it was so dim she could only really see their outlines. She saw one that really caught her focus.

"Nina?" she said shakily. The girl turned towards her and let out a shaky, watery laugh.

"Ambs!"

Both girls were sore, but managed to go over and hug each other. This made everyone start to latch onto the people they'd missed. Soon the erie voice returned.

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams,

One door will have you fighting for the simplest things,

One door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't,

One door will find you back in your home,

Young twelve, be smart with the door that you choose,

You could find, in the end, that their looks betray you."

"Too true." Joy said staring at the fourth door.

"Or they're exactly what they look like." Mick said.

KT sobbed. "My leg."

Everyone looked at KT and silently agreed that they didn't have much more time. Mick picked her up and carried her, and Fabian lead the way. Opening the door, each stepped out and were hit by an early sun. When all of them were out, there was a squeak and a bang. They all jumped and saw that the door behind them fell down, a cloud of dust surrounded it. Alfie coughed.

"I remember it now." he said kind of sadly.

It was too dark to see how they looked in the room, but now everyone was staring at each other. In terms of looks, Jerome, Joy, Alfie, and Amber looked the best. They were covered in soot and had a few burns on them, but they looked healthy, well groomed, and like they hadn't aged a day.

Mara, Eddie, Willow, and Patricia looked a little more frazzled. They had all been in the middle of a fight. Willow was holding onto a bag so tightly that her knuckles were turning white, while Eddie, Patricia and Mara looked beat and cut. Mara's hand was still dripping from when she cut her hand and all three had been hit with enough flying shards from Mara hitting the mirror that they were all bleeding in multiple areas.

But everyone was staring at Mick, KT, Nina and Fabian. Unlike the others, they were in the same clothes (apart from Nina's shirt) they had left in, which were dirty, smelly and ripped up. Their shirts stuck to their bodies with sweat, and there were age old scars and bruises along with fresh ones as well. KT and Mick were aware that their friends couldn't seem to stop staring at the warrior paint on their faces.

"Where did you end up?" Mara asked.

Fabian shrugged. "It seemed like it was supposed to be some time in the future, but we lived like we were in the past."

"Like Medieval times?" Amber asked. Mick shook his head.

"Like tribal nations." he said.

Patricia raised her eyebrows. "And you were there for six months?"

Four scoffs came her way. "Try a year." KT said.

Willow gasped. "A year!"

Eddie looked at the four quiet ones in the back, Not that he had all of his marbles, they'd have to do that soon, but he hardly remembered those four being the type to not say anything. "How long were you in your door? An hour?"

Nina chuckled to herself. "I could totally see you guys setting fire to a place after an hour."

Fabian joined in, "The fourth door is no match for Amber, Joy, and Lewis and Clarke."

When the ones who were in the first door joined in laughing, it was strained. They were sure they would have appreciated the joke much more if they had all of their memories back. KT noticed, however, that no one who came out of the fourth door was laughing, and she thought about saying something, but was distracted when Willow moved over to the side and opened up her duffel bag.

"Now?" Mara asked. Willow nodded.

"I'm not waiting another second."

They all stopped, Mick put KT down and looked at her leg while they did this. She had two deep gashes and two small one. Fabian had been able to kill it before it sunk it's fangs into her. She was dealing with it well, but they needed to get back before it got infected or something.

Everyone watched Willow take out four hourglasses, each different colors. The hourglasses were already quite a site when in the dim lighting of the attic, but they were absolutely mesmerizing with the sun reflecting off of them. Mara, Patricia, Eddie and Willow each grabbed their own hourglass.

"What are those for?" Joy couldn't help asking.

"Do we need to do this now?" Mick said looking at KT. She smiled at him weakly.

"It shouldn't take..." Mara trailed off as she tried to grab the purple colored marbles. Only nothing happened when she took them. "Why... why isn't it working?"

Everyone watched as they tried desperately to do... whatever they were trying to do. "I don't get it." Mick said impatiently. "What are those? What are you doing?"

"Our memories!" Willow exclaimed. Several hearts stopped and breathing became strangled. Or stopped altogether.

"What do you mean your memories?" Amber asked.

Willow let out a quiet sob while Mara explained. "In door one, the longer you stay in there the more memories they take. Each memory is... well sort of represented by a colored marble."

"Not just represented." Patricia said forcefully. "They _were_ our memories. When we'd touch the marbles we'd get them back, but I guess that's only inside door number one. Which would mean nearly half of our memories are just gone for good."

She knocked the hourglass over, red marbles spilled out like blood. Without turning back, she began to walk forward. Mara frowned at her own, and placed it on the ground in front of her calmly, and followed Patricia.

Everyone watched them in horror. Willow sniffed, and took her hourglass, gently putting it back in the bag. Patricia and Mara were now well ahead of the group. Eddie straightened up with his hourglass in his hand.

"We have to get back so Trudy can wrap her leg." He said pointing at KT. He didn't actually know her name, so he didn't address her by it.

"Eddie..." Jerome said scratching his head unsure of what to say.

"We can use a shirt or something in the meantime." Eddie said. "It may have been exposed too long."

He took his own outer shirt off and put it out in front of him for someone to take. Fabian took it and slowly wrapped her leg. She winced at the rips in her skin, but other than that it was quiet when he did it.

Joy swallowed a lump in her throat. "Eddie I-"

"Let's _go_!" he yelled. Willow whimpered and they walked behind him. About five steps closer home, he threw his hourglass somewhere behind the trees. They couldn't see it, but they heard the impact.

It wasn't until they were at a crossroads that they finally caught up to Mara and Patricia. Mara had never been this way, and Patricia didn't remember which way to go. It was another twelve minutes before they arrived back at Anubis House. It was still early so Victor and Trudy were still asleep.

"If you take her upstairs to the bathroom, we can clean her off." Joy said to Mick. He did just that, and they helped her. They washed off the blood and dirt, most of the dirt anyway. Nina helped with the war paint. KT kept bleeding, the most they could do was re wrap the shirt. Amber helped hide the visible scars so Trudy wouldn't get suspicious, and then had her change.

While all of this happened, the boys took turns showering and changing. When KT was clean enough and everyone's scars were hidden by clothes or Amber's expert skills of hiding flaws, Mara made sure to get Trudy. The story was that KT went out for a morning run by the woods and a wolf attacked her. It was the closest story to the truth. Trudy decided that some of the claw marks were too deep and she would need stitches.

"I shouldn't be gone long." She announced to the house in a hurry, frazzled and dismayed by KT's condition. "It's about time to get ready for school, make yourself something to eat."

"School." Nina repeated. "Fabian..."

"We'll readjust."

He looked at everyone. They all looked somewhat scared. Alfie stepped forward. "Two years."

Everyone looked at him. Fabian raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"We were in door two for over two years." Alfie said. "Doing... pretty terrible things."

Mick gulped.

"We will readjust. This is just something we're going to have to live with." Fabian said. "The important part is that we're all here. We're safe, we're together."

Everyone stood together in a circle. KT was with Trudy, but she was in their thoughts.

"My first year, we managed to get away from Rufus and no one was hurt in the end." Nina said. "We got our happy ending."

"Next year we got rid of Rufus and Senkhara." Patricia said. Some were lost with what they were talking about, but followed along anyway. "We got... our happy ending."

"We got rid of Ammut, we cured the sinners." Eddie said. "We got-"

"Our happy ending." several people said.

"We escaped the four door room." Mara said. "Why don't I feel like we're going to get a happy ending?"

"Because the story's not over. And when it is, we're not going to be finished with the story." Joy said. "Even Cinderella keeps living after she gets her prince. It's not the end until we're dead. Fully dead."

Some didn't understand when she said 'fully dead'.

"We managed to get away from Rufus and no one was hurt... until the next year where we got rid of Rufus and Senkhara." Joy said.

"Until the next year where we got rid of Ammut and cured the sinners." Fabian understood.

"Until now, where we escaped the four door room." Nina finished.

"Happy endings aren't real because the story never ends." Joy said.

Jerome sighed. "Come on... let's get ready for school."


	17. raenbc

**So you've read the entire thing? Good on you! That was the end! I know it cuts off sort of unfinished, but that was my point of that. This fanfic is over but the story isn't.**

 **Now, the day I finished chapter 14 a friend of mine read this story we had a chat about it after. And when it was finished, I made a quick decision to copy it and paste it on a word doc. And now I'm going to share it with you. Raenbc is someone who's on this site and also wrote a hoa fanfic. You should check it out, it's pretty cool. It's called House of Switch. Anyway, I hope you liked the story. You must have at least a little bit if you've made it to this point. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or review them whatever's easier.**

* * *

 **me**

 _1:33 AM_

Okay, so we're going to go back to the riddle.

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams,  
One door will have you fighting for the simplest things,  
One door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't"

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:34 AM_

k.

* * *

 **me**

 _1:34 AM_

So what we established was the first one - pleasures beyond your wildest dream - meant the first door's cool 'door' feature in which they could go anywhere they want

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:35 AM_

Mmhm

* * *

 **me**

 _1:35 AM_

The fighting for the simplest things is easily door 3, no context needed

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:35 AM_

Yeah

* * *

 **me**

 _1:35 AM_

And the one where you live but you don't, well jesus that's so door 4 it's not even funny

Well now let me point out some lines

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:36 AM_

Haha (that's an ironic response)

Okey dokey (this is about to get SO trippy, isn't it?)

* * *

 **me**

 _1:36 AM_

"You don't understand yet? I want only to torture you. I want to break you in this world where you're living day by day forced to be happy, but really you're dead inside."

Hmm

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:36 AM_

LIVE BUT YOU DON'T

* * *

 **me**

 _1:37 AM_

That's... that's from door one which is about the wildest pleasure but

But it sounds like...

hmm

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:37 AM_

That's so crazy

* * *

 **me**

 _1:37 AM_

"It's not horrible here." he said. "I mean, it's cold, I never want to eat a squirrel again, and there's the whole war. But the people back at the warehouse... well. I never dreamed that I could connect with them so much. I don't really have something like that at home. So it was nice."

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:37 AM_

Wildest dreams!

* * *

 **me**

 _1:38 AM_

Door 3 is _obviously_ where you're fighting for the simplest things... right? But that surely sounds like the... well... now what could that mean?

"This whole time, I thought we were just trying to keep safe." Joy said. "But it turns out, were weren't. We were fighting for something."  
"What?" Amber asked.  
"Well it's simple, isn't it? Our humanities."

No wait just one darn minute. You mean to tell me we've been lead on about which door fits which riddle this entire time? Well that's just barmy.

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:39 AM_

OH MY GOSH! (How much planning did this take you. Goodness, this is hard work)

* * *

 **me**

 _1:40 AM_

Lots.

Hehe

I don't mind if no one picks up on it.

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:41 AM_

It's still SO cool

* * *

 **me**

 _1:41 AM_

Thanks!

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:41 AM_

Welcs! =]

* * *

 **me**

 _1:41 AM_

lmao at your reaction "this is about to get so trippy"

* * *

 **Raenbc**

 _1:41 AM_

Hehe well I wasn't wrong


End file.
